As used in this section, “office” means any office or other place for the practice of optometry.
(a) No person, singly or in combination with others, may have an office unless he or she is licensed to practice optometry under this chapter.
(b) No optometrist, and no two or more optometrists jointly, may have more than 11 offices.
(c) Any failure to comply with the provisions of this section shall result in the suspension of the optometrist license of each optometrist who, individually or with others, has an office. An optometrist license so suspended shall not be restored except upon compliance with those provisions and the payment of the fee prescribed by this chapter for restoration of a license after suspension for failure to comply with this section.
(d) The board shall have the power to adopt, amend, and repeal rules and regulations to carry out the provisions of this section.
(e) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, neither an optometrist nor an individual practice association shall be deemed to have an additional office solely by reason of the optometrist’s participation in an individual practice association or the individual practice association’s creation or operation. As used in this subdivision, the term “individual practice association” means an entity that meets all of the following requirements:
(1) Complies with the definition of an optometric corporation in Section 3160.
(2) Operates primarily for the purpose of securing contracts with health care service plans or other third-party payers that make available eye/vision services to enrollees or subscribers through a panel of optometrists.
(3) Contracts with optometrists to serve on the panel of optometrists, but does not obtain an ownership interest in, or otherwise exercise control over, the respective optometric practices of those optometrists on the panel.
(Amended by Stats. 2018, Ch. 334, Sec. 2. (SB 1386) Effective January 1, 2019.)
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