2023 New Mexico Statutes › Chapter 61 - Professional and Occupational Licenses › Article 2 - Optometry › Section 61-2-12 - License; display; renewal; retirement; resumption of practice.

A. A person to whom a license as an optometrist has been issued shall display the license in a conspicuous place in the licensee's principal office or place of business.
B. A license shall be renewed annually on or before July 1. Except as provided in Section 61-1-34 NMSA 1978, the licensee shall pay to the secretary-treasurer of the board the required fees. The board shall promulgate rules establishing additional requirements and procedures for renewal of a license. It shall also promulgate rules establishing a fee schedule for renewal of a license, but a specific fee shall not exceed five hundred dollars ($500).
C. Failure to renew a license pursuant to this section terminates the optometrist's authority to practice optometry, and the former licensee shall fulfill all current requirements for licensing and therapeutic drug certification if application for licensing or certification is made after termination.
D. An optometrist who intends to retire from the practice of optometry shall notify the board in writing before the expiration of the optometrist's license, and the secretary-treasurer of the board shall acknowledge the receipt of the notice and record it. If within a period of five years from the year of retirement the optometrist desires to resume practice, the optometrist shall notify the board in writing, and, upon giving proof of completing refresher courses prescribed by rules of the board and the payment of any required fees, the license shall be restored to the optometrist in full effect.
E. Before engaging in the practice of optometry, a licensed optometrist shall notify the secretary-treasurer of the board in writing of the address at which the optometrist intends to begin practice and subsequently of changes in the optometrist's business address or location. Notices the board is required to give a licensee shall legally have been given when delivered to the latest address furnished by the licensee to the board.
History:
1953 Comp., § 67-1-10, enacted by Laws 1973, ch. 353, § 10; 1995, ch. 20, § 7; 2003, ch. 274, § 4; 2020, ch. 6, § 7.
ANNOTATIONS
Cross references.
— For penalties for violation of Optometry Act,
see
61-2-14 NMSA 1978.
The 2020 amendment,
effective July 1, 2020, provided an exception to the licensure fee for qualified military service members, their spouses and dependent children, and for certain veterans, and made certain technical amendments; and in Subsection B, added "Except as provided in Section 61-1-34 NMSA 1978".
The 2003 amendment,
effective June 20, 2003, rewrote this section to the extent that a detailed comparison is impracticable.
The 1995 amendment,
effective July 1, 1995, inserted "as an optometrist" in Subsection A; substituted "secretary-treasurer" for "secretary" throughout the section; substituted "revenue processing division of the taxation and revenue department" for "bureau of revenue" in Subsection B; inserted "to include a minimum of six credit hours of continuing education in ocular therapeutic pharmacological agents" in the first sentence of Subsection C; and made stylistic changes throughout the section.
Am. Jur. 2d, A.L.R. and C.J.S. references.
— 70 C.J.S. Physicians, Surgeons, and Other Health-Care Providers § 11.