Dr. Adam Katz, President of the Florida Society of Ophthalmology today released the following statement after HB 1037 passed out of the Health Quality Subcommittee.

“I am disheartened the Health Quality Subcommittee has decided to support this dangerous piece of legislation. The bill language, created without the consultation of a single Ophthalmologist, allows Optometrists to bypass medical school and begin performing surgery after a brief period of instruction. The first patient an Optometrists performs surgery on will be their first experience with a live patient. This puts the health and wellbeing of all Floridians in jeopardy and drastically lowers the standard of care our patients deserve. If an Optometrist wants to perform surgery, their first stop should be medical school, not the Legislature.”