Florida Statute 463.002 - Full Text and Legal Analysis

The 2025 Florida Statutes

Title XXXII
REGULATION OF PROFESSIONS AND OCCUPATIONS

Chapter 463
OPTOMETRY

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463.002 Definitions.—As used in this chapter, the term:

(1) “Board” means the Board of Optometry.

(2) “Department” means the Department of Health.

(3)(a) “Licensed practitioner” means a person who is a primary health care provider licensed to engage in the practice of optometry under the authority of this chapter.

(b) A licensed practitioner who is not a certified optometrist shall be required to display at her or his place of practice a sign which states, “I am a Licensed Practitioner, not a Certified Optometrist, and I am not able to prescribe ocular pharmaceutical agents.”

(4) “Certified optometrist” means a licensed practitioner authorized by the board to administer and prescribe ocular pharmaceutical agents.

(5) “Ocular pharmaceutical agent” means a pharmaceutical agent that is administered topically or orally for the diagnosis or treatment of ocular conditions of the human eye and its appendages without the use of surgery or other invasive techniques.

(6) “Surgery” means a procedure using an instrument, including a laser, scalpel, or needle, in which human tissue is cut, burned, scraped except as provided in s. 463.014(4), or vaporized, by incision, injection, ultrasound, laser, infusion, cryotherapy, or radiation. The term includes a procedure using an instrument which requires the closure of human tissue by suture, clamp, or other such device.

(7) “Optometry” means the diagnosis of conditions of the human eye and its appendages; the employment of any objective or subjective means or methods, including the administration of ocular pharmaceutical agents, for the purpose of determining the refractive powers of the human eyes, or any visual, muscular, neurological, or anatomic anomalies of the human eyes and their appendages; and the prescribing and employment of lenses, prisms, frames, mountings, contact lenses, orthoptic exercises, light frequencies, and any other means or methods, including ocular pharmaceutical agents, for the correction, remedy, or relief of any insufficiencies or abnormal conditions of the human eyes and their appendages.

(8) “Direct supervision” means supervision to an extent that the licensee remains on the premises while all procedures are being done and gives final approval to any procedures performed by an employee.

(9) “General supervision” means the responsible supervision of supportive personnel by a licensee who need not be present when such procedures are performed, but who assumes legal liability therefor. Except in cases of emergency, “general supervision” shall require the easy availability or physical presence of the licensee for consultation with and direction of the supportive personnel.

(10) “Appendages” means the eyelids, the eyebrows, the conjunctiva, and the lacrimal apparatus.

(11) “Transcript-quality” means a course which is in conjunction with or sponsored by a school or college of optometry or equivalent educational entity, which course is approved by the board and requires a test and passing grade.

(12) “Clock hours” means the actual time engaged in approved coursework and clinical training.

History.—ss. 1, 6, ch. 79-194; s. 315, ch. 81-259; ss. 2, 3, ch. 81-318; ss. 3, 20, 21, ch. 86-289; s. 4, ch. 91-429; s. 1, ch. 93-101; s. 119, ch. 94-218; s. 232, ch. 97-103; s. 63, ch. 98-166; s. 1, ch. 2013-26.

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Amendments to 463.002

Annotations, Discussions, Cases:

Cases Citing Statute 463.002

Total Results: 8 | Sort by: Relevance | Newest First

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Home Design Ctr.-Jt. Venture v. CTY. APPLIANCES OF NAPLES, INC., 563 So. 2d 767 (Fla. 2d DCA 1990).

Cited 11 times | Published | Florida 2nd District Court of Appeal | 1990 WL 80811

Contracts § 1333 (1962); 17A C.J.S. Contracts § 463(2)(b) (1963). Although County Appliances may not

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Cole Vision v. Dept. of Bus. & Prof., 688 So. 2d 404 (Fla. 1st DCA 1997).

Cited 7 times | Published | Florida 1st District Court of Appeal | 1997 WL 60865

...We reject the appellants' contention that paragraph (10) of rule 59V-3.008 redefines "optometry" to include activities that relate solely to the business aspects of optometric practice and the business relationship between optometrists, opticians and optical corporations. Section 463.002(5), Florida Statutes (1993), defines "optometry" as: the diagnosis of conditions of the human eye and its appendages; the employment of any objective or subjective means or methods, including the administration of topical ocular pharm...

...nses, orthoptic exercises, light frequencies, and any other means or methods, including topical ocular pharmaceutical agents, for the correction, remedy, or relief of any insufficiencies or abnormal conditions of the human eyes and their appendages. Section 463.002(5) addresses only the permissible scope of an optometrist's practice. The legislature did not intend to address the scope of permissible business relationships an optometrist may have with an unlicensed entity or person in section 463.002(5). Rather, the scope of permissible business relationships an optometrist may have with unlicensed entities and individuals is addressed in section 463.014(1). Rule 59V-3.008 implements section 463.014, not section 463.002....

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Milton Rudolph v. Milton F. Steinhardt, 721 F.2d 1324 (11th Cir. 1983).

Cited 7 times | Published | Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit | 1983 U.S. App. LEXIS 14175

interest of simplicity, we will cite to section 463. 2 . Act of October 28, 1977, Pub.L

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Bd. of Optometry Etc. v. Florida Med. Ass'n, 463 So. 2d 1213 (Fla. 1st DCA 1985).

Cited 6 times | Published | Florida 1st District Court of Appeal

...provide guidelines for determining the competence of individual optometrists who use such drugs. [1] In so doing, the Board admits it had assumed that chapter 463 authorizes optometrists to use drugs, an assumption arising from its interpretation of section 463.002, Florida Statutes (1981), already embodied in its 1975 policy statement. Appellants' position is that the Board's interpretation of section 463.002, which defines "optometry," is a permissible one, logically flowing from its duty under section 463.005 to promulgate rules necessary to protect the health, safety and welfare of the public, and supported by the chapter's legislative history and the educational evolution of the practice of optometry. Section 463.002(4) defines "optometry" as meaning ......

...Instead, we approve the hearing officer's approach, that the statute at best neither expressly authorizes nor prohibits the prescription and use of legend drugs by optometrists. The issue of whether the Board has the authority to adopt the rule is resolved by determining whether section 463.002(4) may be permissibly interpreted as authorizing optometrists to use legend drugs....

...The legislative purpose behind enacting chapter 463 was to protect the public's health, safety, and welfare by establishing minimum qualifications to shield the public from "unskilled and incompetent" practitioners. Section 463.001, Florida Statutes (1983). We are of the opinion that the Board's interpretation of sections 463.002(4) and 463.005 to authorize the use of legend drugs by optometrists is an impermissible one, one that substantively amends, or adds to, the statute and materially departs from the stated legislative purpose....

...1st DCA 1980); Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services v. Florida Psychiatric Society, Inc., 382 So.2d 1280 (Fla. 1st DCA 1980). There is absolutely no indication in chapter 463 that the legislature could have intended such a result. Although section 463.002(4) utilizes the broad phrases "any objective or subjective means or methods" and "any other means or methods," there is no competent evidence in the record that legend drugs can be included within the classes encompassed by those phrases....

...It may only adopt rules consistent with Chapter 463 and for the purpose of carrying out the terms of the statute. § 463.005. It may adopt standards of practice for licensed optometrists, Id. But it may not adopt standards which exceed or attempt to expand the scope of optometry as defined by Section 463.002(4)....

...Here, the statute does not authorize optometrists to prescribe or use legend drugs in their practice. The BOARD cannot adopt a rule which attempts to supply this authority. The proposed rule, standing alone, can neither add to nor vary the scope of practice defined by Section 463.002(4), F.S....

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State, Bd. of Optometry v. FLA. SOC. OF OPHTH., 538 So. 2d 878 (Fla. 1st DCA 1989).

Cited 3 times | Published | Florida 1st District Court of Appeal

...-graduate coursework as satisfying this statutory requirement. The requirement in subsection (2)(a) that each applicant for certification must have passed 110 hours of approved transcript-quality coursework and clinical training, which is defined in section 463.002(9) as coursework approved by the Board and requiring a test and passing grade, belies any notion that the examination required in 463.0055(2)(c) may also be satisfied by the very same coursework examination....

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Fisher v. Schumacher, 72 So. 2d 804 (Fla. 1954).

Cited 1 times | Published | Supreme Court of Florida | 1954 Fla. LEXIS 1454

administered by the Florida State Board of Optometry, Section 463.02, F.S.A. Section 463.05, F.S.A. authorizes said

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Beckerman v. City of Fort Lauderdale, 423 So. 2d 925 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1982).

Published | District Court of Appeal of Florida | 1982 Fla. App. LEXIS 22188

legislature that such was intended. For example, section 463.-002(5), Florida Statutes (1979) does specifically

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Ago (Fla. Att'y Gen. 1980).

Published | Florida Attorney General Reports

licensed to practice optometry in this state. Section 463.002(3), F. S. According to s. 463.002(4), optometry

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