By: Adam Beam –

More companies are offering eye exams through a smart phone app, marketing it as a way to save a trip and some money on something as simple as a prescription renewal.

But a bill moving through the Kentucky legislature would regulate the industry for the first time in the state, requiring patients to have real-time interaction with a Kentucky-licensed optometrist and banning prescriptions for people who have not had an in-person eye exam within the past two years.

The Kentucky Optometric Association says the bill is designed to protect people from incorrect prescriptions, which could impair drivers and students trying to learn in classrooms. But the companies that offer these services say it’s an attempt to put them out of business and protect the brick-and-mortar doctors’ offices that make money from exams and sales of contacts and prescription glasses.

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