CONSOLIDATED NEWFOUNDLAND REGULATION 1126/96

Short title

1. These regulations may be cited as the Optometric Board Conflict of Interest Regulations.

298/85 s1

Definition

2. In these regulations, "member of his or her family" means a person connected with a practitioner by blood relationship, marriage or adoption, and

(a) persons connected by blood relationship if one is the child or other descendant of the other or one is the brother or sister of the other;

(b) persons are connected by marriage if one is married to the other or to a person who is connected by blood relationship to the other; and

(c) persons are connected by adoption if one has been adopted, either legally or in fact, as the child of the other or as the child of a person who is connected by blood relationship, otherwise than as a brother or sister, to the other.

298/85 s6

Practice prohibited

3. A practitioner shall not engage in the practice of optometry where the practitioner has a conflict of interest.

298/85 s2

Conflict of interest

4. It is a conflict of interest for a practitioner where a practitioner or a member of his or her family

(a) accepts rebates or gifts from a vendor of ophthalmic appliances, materials or equipment or from a person licensed or registered under an Act regulating a health profession;

(b) accepts credit from a vendor of ophthalmic appliances, materials or equipment or from a person licensed or registered under an Act regulating a health profession except where the terms of the credit provide a reasonable time for repayment, a reasonable rate of interest on the amount outstanding during the period of credit and the credit is not related to the referral of patients to the creditor;

(c) rents or makes available premises to a tenant who is a person licensed or registered under an Act regulating a health profession except at a rent normal for the area in which the premises are located and the amount of the rent is not related to the volume of the business carried out in the premises by the tenant; or

(d) rents or uses premises from a vendor of ophthalmic appliances, materials or equipment or from a person licensed or registered under an Act regulating a health profession except at a rent normal for the area in which the premises are located and the amount of the rent is not related to the referral of patients by the practitioner or the amount of fees charged by the practitioner.

298/85 s3

Conflict of interest

5. It is a conflict of interest for a practitioner to

(a) share fees with a person who has referred a patient or receive fees from a person to whom the practitioner has referred a patient or to engage in a form of fee sharing, rebates or other indirect remuneration;

(b) issue a statement or receipt to a patient or to a third party responsible for the payment of the account of a patient which does not itemize the services provided and the fees charged for it or does not describe the ophthalmic appliances utilized by the practitioner in the performance of the service or does not set out the lab costs incurred by the optometrist in the provision of the service;

(c) engage in the practice of optometry where the public entrances or exits of the practitioner's premises are within the premises of a retail merchant, optical company or ophthalmic dispenser or interconnecting with it;

(d) charge or receive for an ophthalmic appliance payment in excess of the actual laboratory costs incurred by the practitioner in the provision of the service provided by the practitioner; or

(e) engage in the practice of optometry with a person or corporation other than

(i) with a practitioner who is engaged in the practice of optometry,

(ii) with a legally qualified medical practitioner who is engaged in the practice of medicine,

(iii) as an employee or agent of government, a university or a hospital,

(iv) with a community health centre if the employment or an arrangement has been approved by the board, or

(v) with a corporation for the sole purpose of providing optometrical counsel and service to the employees of the corporation.

298/85 s4

Repeal

6. The Newfoundland Optometric Board (Conflict of Interest) Regulations, Newfoundland Regulation 298/85, are repealed.