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Bill

A 920

Adds medical and health insurance information within the definitions of personal identifying information; repealer

2025 Regular Session Introduced by Charles Lavine

A920 expands optometrists' scope to diagnose and treat eye conditions with expanded pharmaceutical authority, minor procedures, and immunizations, under updated standards.

SIGNED CHAP.30
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Bill Summary · A 920

Summary — A920 (signed P.L. 2025, c.30)

Status: Signed into law (Chap. 30) February 14, 2025
Introduced: January 9, 2024
Primary sponsor: Assemblyman Charles Lavine
Companions: S354, S785 (A920 substituted for S785)

Purpose

A920 updates New Jersey’s optometry statute to align the legal scope of practice with contemporary doctoral-level optometric training. The bill expands and clarifies the procedures, pharmaceutical authority, and immunization activities optometrists may undertake, and clarifies prerequisites and standards of care for those services.

Key provisions and changes

  • Broad statement of scope: Declares optometry to include administration and performance of diagnostic and therapeutic modalities reasonable to diagnose and treat eye and adnexal conditions.
  • Pharmaceuticals:
    • Explicitly authorizes use and prescription of pharmaceutical agents by any route of administration, including controlled dangerous substances.
    • Authorizes prescription/administration of epinephrine (or equivalent) to counteract anaphylaxis.
  • Procedures and interventions:
    • Authorizes simple ophthalmologic procedures including non‑invasive application of laser and ultrasound reasonable and limited to ocular diagnosis/treatment — specifically lists trabeculoplasty, capsulotomy, and iridotomy — performed with topical anesthesia only.
    • Authorizes certain minor procedures (e.g., treatment of chalazions, excision of benign skin tags/lesions) with local anesthesia only.
    • Explicit exclusions: invasive intra‑ocular surgery (full‑thickness globe incision), orbital surgery (e.g., strabismus procedures, procedures requiring incision of the orbital septum), surgeries requiring layered suturing, and any procedure performed under general anesthesia.
    • Authorizes provision of pre‑ and post‑operative care for the specified minor procedures.
  • Immunizations:
    • Permits administration of immunizations against coronaviruses, influenza, and varicella‑zoster by any route consistent with CDC/ACIP recommendations.
    • Optometrists may not vaccinate patients under age 18 under this authority.
    • Requires reporting administered immunizations to the New Jersey Immunization Information System (NJIIS).
  • Standards and professional obligations:
    • Optometrists treating ocular disease are held to a standard of care commensurate with that of physicians performing comparable procedures.
    • Continues requirements to display registration certificates in offices and to notify the Board in writing at least 5 days before changing practice locations.
  • Authorization clarification and oversight:
    • Committee amendments removed certain phrases that had made the New Jersey State Board of Optometry the sole determiner of whether particular procedures could be performed, thereby reducing the degree of board-determined oversight for specified procedures.
    • The bill also clarifies requirements an optometrist must complete before receiving authorization to perform certain services (text refers to clarified prerequisites though specific training/credentialing steps are not detailed in the provided excerpt).

Who is affected

  • Primary: Licensed optometrists in New Jersey (expanded clinical and prescribing authority).
  • Secondary: Patients receiving eye care; the New Jersey State Board of Optometry (rule, registration, oversight/implementation duties); the State Board of Medical Examiners in the sense of shared standard‑of‑care comparisons; NJIIS (immunization reporting).

Procedural / timeline notes

  • Referred to Assembly Regulated Professions Committee (1/9/2024); reported with committee amendments (3/14/2024).
  • Passed Assembly (1/28/2025) and Senate (2/5/2025); delivered to the Governor (2/12/2025); signed into law (2/14/2025) as Chapter 30 of 2025.

Potential impacts to note

  • Expands optometrists’ clinical scope (procedural and pharmaceutical), which may increase access to eye care services in outpatient settings.
  • Raises regulatory and training implementation questions (how authorizations, credentialing, and reporting will be operationalized by the Board).
  • The inclusion of controlled substances and expanded procedures may prompt coordination between optometry and medical regulators to ensure patient safety and appropriate oversight.

(Prepared from the bill text and committee statement; specifics of any implementing regulations or required training pathways are not detailed in the provided excerpts.)

Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.

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