FOR YOUR INFORMATION...............March 6, 1989 The Federal Trade Commission staff has said that a proposed change in the administrative rules of the Michigan Board of Optometry "is likely to increase costs to consumers." The staff comments are in response to a Notice of Public Hearing by the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulation. The staff commented on one section of the rules which would prohibit optometrists from delegating specified procedures to nonlicensed, qualified eye-care professionals unless a licensed professional supervises the performance of the procedure. According to the comments, that restriction "would appear to prohibit Michigan opticians from performing various procedures that they now routinely perform on their own, unless supervised by a licensed optometrist or ophthalmologist. Opticians must be able to perform at least some of these procedures if they are to continue their current practice of filling eyeglass prescriptions and fitting and dispensing contact lenses." The comments concluded, "Adopting restrictions that may prevent or hinder unsupervised but otherwise qualified opticians from performing procedures that allow them to fill eyeglass prescriptions and fit contact lenses would appear to harm con- sumers by limiting competition and increasing costs and -- at least in the case of cosmetic contact lenses -- without improving the quality of care." The comments are the views of the staff of the Commission's Cleveland Regional office and the Bureau of Consumer Protection. They are not necessarily the views of the Commission itself or any individual Commissioner. Copies of the comments are available from the FTC's Public Reference Branch, Room 130, 6th St. and Pennsylvania Ave. N.W. Washington, D.C. 20580; 202-326-2222; TTY 202-326-2502. # # # MEDIA CONTACT: Susan Ticknor, Office of Public Affairs, 202-326-2181 STAFF CONTACT: Mark Kindt, Cleveland Regional Office, 215-522-4210 (MichOpt)