Tex. Occ. Code § 351.457 · Subchapter J. PROHIBITED PRACTICES BY LICENSE HOLDER
PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY; FEES.
Text — Current through the 89th 2nd Called Legislative Session, 2025
(a) An optometrist or therapeutic optometrist may not directly or indirectly divide, share, split, or allocate a fee for optometric services or materials with:
(1) a layperson, firm, or corporation; or
(2) another optometrist, therapeutic optometrist, or licensed physician, except on the basis of a division of service or responsibility.
(b) Subsection (a) does not:
(1) prevent an optometrist or therapeutic optometrist from paying an employee in the regular course of employment;
(2) prevent establishment of a partnership for the practice of optometry or therapeutic optometry; or
(3) prohibit an optometrist or therapeutic optometrist from being employed on a salary, with or without a bonus arrangement, by an optometrist, therapeutic optometrist, or licensed physician, regardless of the amount of supervision exerted by the employer over the office in which the employee works.
(c) A bonus arrangement described by Subsection (b)(3) may not be based on the business or income of an optical company.
(d) Section 351.361(c) applies to this section.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 388, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1999.
Source of truth
- Edition
- Current through the 89th 2nd Called Legislative Session, 2025
- Official file
- https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/OC/htm/OC.351.htm
- Text hash
- sha256 33de32c84b4df5b198799db3294297dfc56e181285c383fe3b12ff0adbe7c1c2
- Composed by
- compose_tx.py 2026-10-05: the Legislative Council's chapter files read in document order; verify_tx.py's independent reading (lxml DOM walk) agrees character for character
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