Sec. 351.364. RELATIONSHIPS WITH DISPENSING OPTICIANS. (a) If an optometrist or therapeutic optometrist occupies space for the practice of optometry or therapeutic optometry on premises on which a person engages in the business of a dispensing optician, solid partitions or walls from floor to ceiling must separate the space occupied by the optometrist or therapeutic optometrist from the space occupied by the dispensing optician.
(b) The space occupied by the optometrist or therapeutic optometrist must have a patient's entrance opening on a public thoroughfare, such as a public street, hall, lobby, or corridor. An entrance is not considered a patient's entrance unless actually used as an entrance by the optometrist's or therapeutic optometrist's patients.
(c) An optometrist or therapeutic optometrist may engage in the business of a dispensing optician, own stock in a corporation engaged in the business of a dispensing optician, or be a partner in a firm engaged in the business of a dispensing optician, but the records and accounts of the business of a dispensing optician must be kept separate from those of the optometric practice.
(d) The purpose of this section is to ensure that the practices of optometry and therapeutic optometry are carried out in a manner completely separate from the business of a dispensing optician, with no control of one by the other and no solicitation for one by the other, except as described by this section.
Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 388, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1999.
Structure Texas Statutes
Subtitle F - Professions Related to Eyes and Vision
Chapter 351 - Optometrists and Therapeutic Optometrists
Subchapter H. Practice by License Holder
Section 351.351. License Holder Information
Section 351.352. Optometric Files and Records
Section 351.353. Initial Examination of Patient
Section 351.354. Certain Optometric Services Authorized
Section 351.355. Determining or Measuring Vision
Section 351.356. Fitting Lenses or Prisms
Section 351.357. Fitting and Dispensing Contact Lenses
Section 351.358. Ophthalmic Devices, Oral Medications, and Pharmaceutical Agents
Section 351.3581. Treatment of Glaucoma
Section 351.360. Professional Standard of Therapeutic Optometrist
Section 351.361. Lease; Payment Basis; Accounts Receivable
Section 351.362. Professional Responsibility; Name of Practice
Section 351.363. Mercantile Establishment
Section 351.364. Relationships With Dispensing Opticians
Section 351.365. Patient Rights Regarding Spectacle Prescription
Section 351.366. Authority to Form Certain Jointly Owned Entities
Section 351.367. Contract or Employment With Community Health Centers