To: Federal Service ODs who maintain FL licenses
Re: Florida’s “not-a-doctor” bill
Florida Senate Bill 230 is on the Florida Governor’s desk. If this bill becomes law, its negative effects on our profession will be far-reaching.
What you can do:
Call every day, Monday through Friday, between 8am-5pm at 850-488-7146 or 850-717-9337 (both go to the same queue). You can only call one time each day since additional calls will not be counted. If the voicemail box is full, please Press 1 to hold for a staff member. It will keep you on hold before sending you to the full voicemail, so you will have to hang up and call again.
Please state:
• I am respectfully requesting for Governor DeSantis to VETO SB 230
• My name is
• I am currently a practicing optometrist in the state of Florida (this is important especially if you are calling from a phone number with a non-Florida area code)
• My phone number is
Out of state emails and calls will not be counted in any tally that the Gov’s office takes down. However, these calls and emails could have some influence as Gov. DeSantis is a Presidential Candidate.
When you get in touch with the governor’s office, please keep all comments respectful. Below are some talking points to consider when writing your message at https://www.flgov.com/email-the-governor/.
• Honorable Governor DeSantis, I am respectfully requesting for you to VETO SB 230. I am a practicing optometrist in the state of Florida.
• Extensive investment of time and money to earn a 4-year doctoral level degree, Doctor of Optometry, but will not be able to use the term optometric physician like the chiropractic physicians, podiatric physicians, and dentists that also earn their degrees in 4 years or less.
• The increase in expense to replace all items that use the terms doctor or optometric physician (ex. business cards, stationary, web design, etc).
• SB 230 discriminates against and clearly disparages the profession of optometry in the state of Florida.
• This is a punitive bill against optometrists who provide 85% of the primary eye care to the citizens of Florida and will create more confusion for the patients optometrist care for every day.
• Share your thoughts on how this may impact your decision to practice optometry in the state of Florida should this bill become law.
• Optometrists have received recognition as “physicians” in the Federal Register, from CMS and Florida Medicaid, but with this bill optometrists will be charged with a felony if they use the term optometric physician.
Thanks,
This email was adapted from a message distruted by Kyle Wright of the Florida Optometric Association