News from the AOA's Blog

President Barack Obama on Saturday signed into law AOA-backed legislation to exempt specific businesses – including optometry practices – from the anti-identity theft requirements of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) burdensome Red Flags Rule.

At the urging of the AOA and other health provider groups, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives came together in the final weeks of Congress’ post-election “lame duck” session to give final approval to the Red Flags Program Clarification Act of 2010.

Under the legislation, the Red Flags Rule will now only apply to businesses that engage in one of three practices:

1) using credit reports in the ordinary course of business

2) furnishing information to credit reporting companies

3) loaning money

The Red Flags Rule is the result of legislation approved in 2003 aimed at requiring financial institutions and creditors to develop a written plan to prevent and detect identity theft.

In taking steps to implement the law in recent years, the FTC wrongly classified health professionals, including optometrists, as “creditors” and sought to apply its requirements to their practices.

Barring corrective action, optometry practices would have been forced to comply with the same regulation that calls for banks and creditors to have written procedures in place to prevent, identify and mitigate identity theft and to train staff to follow those plans.

The AOA protested this action, helped secure four administrative enforcement delays stretching for more than two years and built support on Capitol Hill for a permanent legislative fix that included optometrists.

AOA members with questions or looking for further information should contact Jon Hymes (jfhymes@aoa.org) or Matt Willette (mwillette@aoa.org) of the AOA Washington Office at 1-800-365-2219.