Higher Prices for Contact Lenses?

Sept. 15, 2006 -- A dispute between contact lens manufacturers, sellers, and eye care professionals could soon have 38 million consumers paying more for their lenses.

The fight involves little-publicized distribution agreements that restrict sales of certain lens brands to doctor or optometrist offices.

The limited distribution agreements come in several forms, but essentially allow eye care professionals to prescribe lenses only such professionals sell. That can force a patient to pay inflated prices for lenses they can't buy anywhere else.

A 2003 law and a court settlement forced major lens manufacturers to sell their lenses to the mass market, opening up huge sales to stores like Wal-Mart and Costco, as well as to online and telephone retailers.

But terms of that settlement expire Nov. 1, potentially clearing the way for more manufacturers to limit sales to doctors' offices.

That could allow more doctors to prescribe more lenses only they can sell. Lens retailers call that anti-competitive.

But doctors say selling lenses through retailers allows patients to bypass regular checkups -- and for retailers to make a sale without even verifying the patient's prescription.

Manufacturers say the vast majority of their lenses are now sold on the mass market.

It remains unclear if major manufacturers will increase the use of restrictive sales agreements after Nov. 1.

Jonathan C. Coon, CEO of 1-800 Contacts, Inc., says allowing optometrists and other eye care professionals exclusive rights to sell the lenses they prescribe is an inherent conflict of interest and goes against the intent of the 2003 law.

That law required doctors to hand out paper prescriptions, presumably so patients could shop around for the best price.

"The purpose of the law is to allow patients to choose; the purpose of the [limited distribution] practice is to deny them that choice," Coon told a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Capitol Hill Friday.