It's also the right time to ask if mail order contact lens sellers have changed their approach to marketing in light of the new law. 

Consider this article your head start as we'll explore four Web sites -- visiondirect.com, justlenses.com, lensesbymail.com and 1800contacts.com.  Keep in mind that this article makes no attempts to judge how these or any other contact lens sellers are following the new law. It also will not judge the effectiveness of the passive verification system (in terms of either clinical or practice management terms) that's required by the Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act. With that disclaimer behind, let's go.

Visiondirect.com
The leader in low price, visiondirect.com sells a six-pack box of Acuvue 2 lenses for a mere $12.20 - $15.95 before rebate (all prices mentioned in this article were based on each Web site's published price on March 3, 2004). The site, "powered" by drugstore.com of Bellevue, Wash., asks consumers for a valid prescription in order to purchase lenses. It emphasizes that patients must clarify all prescription questions through the ECP with such statements as:

"If you have any questions regarding your prescription or need to clarify the information contained within, please contact your eye care professional."

and

"Vision Direct cannot and will not provide advice about your prescription, corrective requirements, or which lenses are best for you."

I could not find any mention of the new law on the site. I did, however, find a "Code of Practice" that includes the following information:

• Vision Direct supplies contact lenses in accordance with the Order Form and the customer's contact lens prescription. 
• the customer is responsible for ensuring accurate prescription information. 
• the customer's contact lens prescription must be valid.
• Vision Direct assumes that the customer is healthy and capable of wearing contact lenses.
• Vision Direct accepts no responsibility "for a customer's lack of suitability to wear contact lenses."
• Vision Direct retains the right not to supply the lenses if it "is not satisfied with a customer's ocular health or has reason to believe that the replacement contact lenses requested are not clinically suitable."
• any complaint will be attended to within 5 business days.

Justlenses.com
If you think the Internet is an exclusive community of low-price sellers, then justlenses.com, Louisiana, Mo., may surprise you: The box of Acuvue 2 contact lenses cost $20.95 on the site. Again, I could find no mention of the new law on the site, but it clearly asks for a valid prescription, even in the case of cosmetic or colored plano lenses. 

Lensesbymail.com 
Lensesbymail.com advertises "colored contacts without a prescription," which is a clear violation of the law, but the site doesn't have to follow the law -- U.S. law that is. The site is based in the United Kingdom where you may, as lensesbymail.com puts it, "change your eye color without the need to visit an eye doctor or an optician to get a contact lens prescription." 

For all other lenses, the site does ask for a valid prescription and "strongly" recommends that customers visit their ECPs on a regular basis. It even warns, "There are a number of serious problems and health risks that can go unnoticed if you don't go for regular check-ups to your eye doctor, and some of them can cause a loss of vision and even blindness."

With the falling value of the dollar, it's hard to fathom that foreign sites pose a significant threat to any domestic sellers. The Acuvue 2 lenses were offered at $29.50 a box. Would a stronger dollar increase international sales? I find it hard to imagine that all but the most extreme U.S. consumers would wait until the value of the dollar spikes and then seize the moment to buy contact lenses off shore.

1800contacts
It's easy to see why some ECPs see red when they visit the 1800contacts site. Here's a typical statement taken from it:

"A number of our customers tell us that some eye care providers are reluctant to provide prescriptions to their patients. Although this may seem illogical, there is a very simple reason: unlike most doctors, eye doctors sell the products they prescribe � Therefore, some believe that withholding a prescription will force the patient to purchase contact lenses from them. Dealing with this situation can be very frustrating, however, when this happens you are not without options."

Your first option, says 1800, is to know the law. The site goes to great lengths to describe the portions of the law that require ECPs to provide patients with a copy of their prescriptions. It includes this explanation of passive verification: If your eye doctor does not respond to our request for verification within eight business hours, the prescription is considered verified, and you will receive your lenses. 

1800 warns, however, that there are common practices that some eye care providers use to prevent you from getting your prescription. Go to http://www.1800contacts.com/docAndRx/DocRx-release-1.shtml and click on the "Be savvy" button to see how the site sizes up "the common practices that some eye care providers use to prevent you from getting your prescription." Note that much of this section of the site was already active long before President Bush signed the new law.

There are other buttons to click with titles such as "my doctor won't give me my prescription." 1800 provides a list of locations for discounted eye exams (Pearl Vision, Sears Optical or 1800's network of independent doctors). The price of the exam, $78, isn't the lowest I've seen and 1800 doesn't offer the lowest price on contact lenses ($14.95 per box of Acuvue 2s, if they are purchased in eight-box quantities).

In all fairness, note that when consumers follow the site's procedure for purchasing contact lenses, they don't see any of the information that would be considered ECP "unfriendly." This information is separate from the ordering process, and that's in 1800's best interest. After all, the company wants the ordering process to be as fast and convenient as possible. 

The bottom line

In terms of marketing, the Web sites I visited exhibit little if any change since the passage of the Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act. The one exception was 1800contacts. Even there, customers would have to divert from the typical lens purchasing process and go through three or four screens before they saw any mention of the new law.

This suggests that the marketing practices of Internet contact lens sellers won't change much under the new law. Practices should have little to fear in terms of increased competition that would be generated by the Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act.

On a wider scale, Optometric Management welcomes your comments on how the Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act has affected your practice. Let us know too if the law has had no impact.