A bill that would regulate the operation of mobile optometry units in South Carolina has made its way through the state House of Representatives and is awaiting approval from members of the Senate Medical Affairs committee. 

If signed into law, the bill would override an existing state law prohibiting mobile vans from conducting simple eye exams on a school campus. 

Introduced by state legislators earlier this year, the bill would mandate mobile optometry units to be limited to visiting and providing eye care services to licensed health care facilities within the state and on the site of schools that receive federal Title 1 funding. 

Vision to Learn, a national nonprofit group that provides free prescription glasses to students in Charleston and other cities across the United States, is one of the organizations that would be affected by the bill. 

After a previous report in The Post and Courier pointed out that the charitable group was being blocked from giving glasses to low-income students, a temporary budget proviso allowed them to operate in South Carolina, but that measure will expire in June.

The bill is currently awaiting a hearing in the Senate Medical Affairs Committee. Committee Chairman Danny Verdin, R-Laurens, was not available for an interview after multiple messages. 

The bill states that the services of a mobile eye-exam unit must be provided to students attending the school and must be provided as part of a not-for-profit program. Other mobile clinics will also have to obtain a permit, following an inspection by the S.C. Board of Examiners in Optometry. 

Damian Carroll, national director for Vision to Learn, said the group is thrilled and hopes the bill will work its way through the Senate swiftly, allowing the program to continue helping children in Charleston County. 

“The committee staff worked with us and with (the South Carolina Optometric Association) to come up with compromising language that we all felt we could live with,” Carroll said. 

The state’s optometrist association has vocally opposed the organization’s operating model before, arguing that Vision to Learn’s providers are not offering quality eye care services because they do not dilate a student’s eyes during an exam. 

“We wanted to make sure that (kids) weren’t getting a sub-standard screening just because they were at a Title 1 school,” said Dr. Johndra McNeely, president of SCOPA and an optometrist in Greenville. 

Carroll said updated language in the bill states that students who are identified by the organization’s optometrist as needing a cycloplegic exam, a routine procedure where doctors administer eye drops to more accurately determine vision clarity, will be referred for follow-up care before being provided prescription glasses. McNeely agreed that the updated language in the bill offers sufficient protection for kids to receive proper care. 

Carroll estimates at least 10 percent of students seen by the program will be referred for follow-up care by a local optometrist or ophthalmologist office to receive the exam. After the exam, the student can come back to Vision to Learn’s mobile unit to receive their glasses at no cost.

Prior to the bill’s new language, Vision to Learn was offering students who needed a cycloplegic exam an interim pair of glasses while they waited for their more detailed prescription from a local optometrist.

Now, the organization will only offer those students glasses once the most updated prescription is provided. 

So far, Vision to Learn has completed more than 1,000 eye exams in 10 different Charleston County public schools and has handed out hundreds of pairs of prescription eyeglasses. 

According to Ellen Nitz, director of nursing services for Charleston County School District, bringing mobile vision services to students helps the school district. Nitz said CCSD has a high population of students who don’t have primary care physicians and have never had official eye exams before. 

“I hope this is something that not only kids in Charleston County will be able to use but all of our kids throughout South Carolina will have a chance to participate in a Vision to Learn program,” Nitz said.

A spokesperson for the organization told The Post and Courier that once legislation allows the company to operate past June 2022, Vision to Learn hopes to expand its reach to neighboring Dorchester and Berkeley counties.