30 Miss. Code. R. 2901-8.2 - Lease of premises from mercantile establishment

(a) In order to safeguard the visual welfare of the public and the doctor-patient relationship, fix professional responsibility, establish standards of professional surroundings, more nearly secure to the patient the optometrist's or therapeutic optometrist's undivided loyalty and service, and carry out the prohibitions of this Rule against placing an optometric or therapeutic optometric license in the service or at the disposal of unlicensed persons. No optometrist or therapeutically certified optometrist shall conduct his profession in a room or part of a room in or on the premises where commercial or mercantile establishment is the primary business being conducted.

(b) The practice must be owned by a Mississippi-licensed optometrist or therapeutic optometrist. Every phase of the practice and the leased premises shall be under the exclusive control of a Mississippi-licensed optometrist or therapeutic optometrist.

(c) The prescription files and all business records of the practice shall be the sole property of the optometrist or therapeutic optometrist and free from involvement with the mercantile establishment or any unlicensed person.

(d) The lease space shall be definite and apart from the space occupied by other occupants of the premises. It shall be separated from space used by other occupants of the premises by solid, opaque partitions or walls from floor to ceiling. Railings, curtains, doors (locked or unlocked), and other similar arrangements are not sufficient to comply with this requirement.

(e) The lease space shall have a patient's entrance opening on a public street, hall, lobby, corridor, or other public thoroughfare. The aisle of a mercantile establishment does not comply with this requirement.

(f) No phase of the optometrist's or therapeutic optometrist's practice shall be conducted as a department or concession of the mercantile establishment; and there shall be no legends or signs such as "Optical Department," "Optometrical Department," or others of similar import, displayed on any part of the premises or in any advertising.

(g) The optometrist or therapeutic optometrist shall not permit his name or his practice to be directly or indirectly used in connection with the mercantile establishment in any advertising, displays, signs, or in any other manner.

(h) All credit accounts for patients shall be established with the optometrist or therapeutic optometrist and not the credit department of the mercantile establishment. However, nothing in this subsection prevents the optometrist or therapeutic optometrist from thereafter selling, transferring, or assigning any such account.

Notes

30 Miss. Code. R. 2901-8.2

Miss Code Ann. § 73-19-3; § 73-19-9

Amended 11/21/2022