Scope of Practice

[blueeyedOD]

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Hello all,
I keep hearing that Tennessee has liberal practice laws, and therefore SCO is a good place to go to school. Does anyone know how their laws compare to other states in the South? What can optometrists do in TN that they can't in other states? I am thinking also about going to UAB, and might consider practicing in GA, NC, or SC in the future.
Thanks!

 

[jefguth]

Hello all,
I keep hearing that Tennessee has liberal practice laws, and therefore SCO is a good place to go to school. Does anyone know how their laws compare to other states in the South? What can optometrists do in TN that they can't in other states? I am thinking also about going to UAB, and might consider practicing in GA, NC, or SC in the future.
Thanks!

Don' worry too much about the scope of practice in the state in which the school is located. Most likely you'll be getting a big part of your disease training outside the school during externships, which can be in almost any state.

 

[docwatson]

Hello all,
I keep hearing that Tennessee has liberal practice laws, and therefore SCO is a good place to go to school. Does anyone know how their laws compare to other states in the South? What can optometrists do in TN that they can't in other states? I am thinking also about going to UAB, and might consider practicing in GA, NC, or SC in the future.
Thanks!

Are you an AOA member? If you go to this site you can learn about prescriptive authority across the 50 states.

http://www.aoa.org/x4836.xml

Of course prescriptive authority does not completely define what is a good state and what is not a good state to practice in, but it is a good start.

There are four states that I would not want to practice in because of the limitations in prescriptive authority: New York, Massachusetts (the only state without glaucoma privileges), Rhode Island and Maryland. Note that the first three surround Connecticut where I practice!

I would not want to practice in California and Arizona because VSP is king in these states. I just don't like the idea that I would have to run my office purely like an optical to survive.

North Carolina is probably the best state to practice in since they have had full prescriptive authority for 30 years. They have a decent relationship with the OMDs because of this and reimbursements are fairly high--even Medicaid which pays as much as Medicare in this state. But it is difficult to get in unless you are either a NC resident or a top student.

 

[blueeyedOD]

I'm not a member, so I can't access that page. But thanks for the additional info. Do you think it matters on the location the school is in? For example, in AL Optometrists can't prescribe schedule II drugs; in TN, they can. How will that affect my education?

 

[cpw]

I'm not a member, so I can't access that page. But thanks for the additional info. Do you think it matters on the location the school is in? For example, in AL Optometrists can't prescribe schedule II drugs; in TN, they can. How will that affect my education?

it won't affect your education at all. All schools teach to the level of the fullest scope of practice in the most advanced state. By the time you graduate it won't matter where you practice because you'll be trained to do everything.

FWIW, i can count the number of times I would have needed to write for a CII narcotic on one hand.

 

[docwatson]

I'm not a member, so I can't access that page. But thanks for the additional info. Do you think it matters on the location the school is in? For example, in AL Optometrists can't prescribe schedule II drugs; in TN, they can. How will that affect my education?

Send me an email at [email protected]

It doesn't matter with the location of the school. All that matters is that you go to a low cost school to minimize your loans. All of the schools are more or less equivalent.