Contact Lens Users: Are You Being Scammed?

If your eye doctor isn't giving you access to your prescription, here's what you need to know.

Under the new Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act, people who wear contact lenses may purchase them anywhere they want: the eye doctor's office, pharmacies, department stores, mass-merchandising stores, the Internet or mail-order outlets.

Your eye doctors is required by law to make your lens prescription available upon request. nationwide will be required by federal law to make lens prescriptions available to the 36 million Americans who wear contacts -- even if they don't ask for them.

This means that the 36 million Americans who wear contact lenses can save up to 20 percent on their lenses, or $350 million a year.

The law also states that your eye doctor cannot fill out the prescription in a way that makes it difficult for you to fulfill at other sources.
As recently as January 2001, when Consumers Union surveyed 83 eye doctors in nine Texas cities, two still refused to release a prescription at all, four others would not release until after patients purchased their initial supplies from them and 57 percent would not release prescriptions unless patients came back for follow-up visits.

An industry surveys show that 70 percent of all contact lenses are sold directly by the same eye-care professional who prescribes them. Another survey showed that some eye doctors were literally gouging their patients. An example was the cost of one box of six Acuvue soft lenses. The prices being charged ranged from $18 to $42 per box of six, with some eye doctors charging twice as much as others.

With competition from the Internet and large retail stores like Walmart, the prices of contact lenses have dropped. Consumers can shop around and save money in most cases. Trusting your eye doctor to fill contact lens prescriptions can limit your choices and cost you money.