[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2012 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2012

To amend the Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act to require contact 
 lens sellers to provide a toll-free telephone number and a dedicated 
    email address for the purpose of receiving communications from 
                              prescribers.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 24, 2007

 Mr. Ross (for himself, Mr. Whitfield, Mr. Boozman, Mr. Hall of Texas, 
  Mrs. Drake, and Mr. Allen) introduced the following bill; which was 
            referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act to require contact 
 lens sellers to provide a toll-free telephone number and a dedicated 
    email address for the purpose of receiving communications from 
                              prescribers.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Contact Lens Consumer Health 
Protection Act''.

SEC. 2. IMPROVED COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN SELLERS AND PRESCRIBERS.

    Section 4 of the Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act (15 U.S.C. 
7603) is amended--
            (1) in subsection (c), by adding at the end the following:
            ``(7) A toll-free telephone number and email address for 
        prescribers to call or email with questions relating to a 
        verification request, as required under subsection (i).'';
            (2) in subsection (d)(3), by adding at the end the 
        following: ``If a prescriber communicates a question or concern 
        to a seller through the toll-free telephone service or 
        dedicated email address required under subsection (i) before 
        such 8-hour period has ended, the seller must obtain 
        affirmative confirmation of the accuracy of the prescription 
        from the prescriber before the prescription is considered 
        verified.'';
            (3) by redesignating subsection (e) through (g) as 
        subsections (f) through (h), respectively;
            (4) by adding after subsection (d) the following:
    ``(e) Prescriber Preferred Method of Communication.--A prescriber 
may provide written notification to a seller requesting that all 
requests for verification from that seller be communicated to that 
prescriber by that prescriber's preferred method of communication. Such 
preferred method of communication may be by telephone, facsimile, or 
email, or by either of any 2 of those means of communication.''; and
            (5) by inserting after subsection (h) (as so redesignated), 
        the following:
    ``(i) Telephone Service and Dedicated Email Address.--A seller of 
contact lenses who requests verification of any contact lens 
prescription shall provide a toll-free telephone service operable 
during regular business hours and a dedicated email address for the 
sole purpose of responding to prescribers' questions and concerns 
regarding verification requests. Such toll-free telephone service shall 
maintain a sufficient number of working telephone lines to enable ready 
access by prescribers to the service.''.

SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON OVERFILLING CONTACT LENS PRESCRIPTIONS.

    The Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act (15 U.S.C. 7601 et seq.) 
is further amended--
            (1) by redesignating section 8 through 12 as sections 9 
        through 13, respectively;
            (2) in section 10(a) (as so redesignated), by striking 
        ``section 8'' and inserting ``section 9''; and
            (3) by inserting after section 7 the following new section:

``SEC. 8. PROHIBITION ON OVERFILLING CONTACT LENS PRESCRIPTIONS.

    ``No contact lens prescription shall be overfilled by any seller of 
contact lenses.   A seller who provides more lenses than the 
prescription specifies, or who provides more lenses than the number of 
lenses required to fill a prescription for the period beginning on the 
date the prescription is filled through its expiration date, shall be 
deemed to have overfilled the prescription.''.

SEC. 4. EXPANDED PENALTIES.

    Section 10(b) of the Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act (15 
U.S.C. 7608(b)) (as redesignated by section 3) is amended by striking 
the period at the end and inserting ``, except that fines imposed for a 
violation of section 4 of this Act may be in an amount up to $100,000 
per violation.''
                                 <all>