HOW THE RX VERIFICATION PROCESS WORKS
The Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act increases consumers’ ability to shop around when buying contact lenses. The Act gives consumers certain rights, imposes duties on contact lens prescribers and sellers, and requires the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to develop and enforce implementing rules. The FTC issued the Contact Lens Rule in July 2004 to spell out the Act’s requirements.
The Contact Lens Rule requires prescribers to give patients a copy of their contact lens prescriptions at the end of a contact lens fitting, even if the patient doesn’t ask for it. A patient who wants to buy contact lenses from another seller then may give the prescription to that seller. If a consumer doesn’t give his prescription to that seller, the seller must instead verify the prescription before selling the lenses.
Our Responsibility
The Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act governs the sale of both non-prescription lenses (i.e. costume, fancy dress) and prescription contact lenses (i.e. corrective, anti-fatigue). As such, we as a seller may only provide our contact lenses in accordance with a valid prescription that is either directly presented to us or verified with your prescriber.
That means we can provide contact lenses when a customer presents their prescription in person, by fax or by email. Alternatively, the customer can authorize us to verify their prescription via direct communication with their prescriber.
In order to make the above process as quick and easy for our customers as possible, Coloured Contacts uses a system called ‘Approve My Prescription’ during the checkout process. This system is responsible for directly communicating with your prescriber, requesting verification of your prescription.
When directly communicating with your prescriber, this system provides them with all of your order information and all of our contact details. Your order information details which are provided include:
- Your full name and address
- The contact lens power, manufacturer, base curve or appropriate designation, and diameter (when appropriate)
- The quantity of lenses ordered,
- The date and time of your order, and
- The date and time of the verification request
Once this information has been sent, a prescription is verified if your prescriber:
- confirms its accuracy to us via direct communication,
- informs us that the prescription is inaccurate and provides accurate information to us via direct communication, or
- fails to communicate with us within “eight-business-hours” of receiving our complete verification request. A business hour is defined as one hour between 09:00 am and 17:00pm, Monday through Friday (excluding federal holidays), in your prescriber’s time zone.
