Advertising, Solicitation, Fee Splitting, and Business Practices
Domain 5 covers how an Ohio optometrist may market services and how money may and may not flow between a practice and those who send patients or supply goods.
Advertising
Advertising must be truthful and not misleading, deceptive, or likely to create unjustified expectations. Price advertising states the complete price or clearly discloses exclusions. Superlatives and comparative claims need substantiation. "Dr." and degree designations must accurately reflect licensure, testimonials must not imply guaranteed outcomes, and "free" offers must disclose their conditions.
Solicitation
Ohio restricts solicitation aimed at vulnerable or captive audiences, such as in-person solicitation of accident or injury victims, and prohibits using runners or agents to generate patients. Pressure tactics and manufactured urgency are treated as deceptive.
Fee splitting and kickbacks
A licensee may not pay or receive compensation for the referral of patients, and may not split a professional fee with a non-licensee who did not provide the professional service. Percentage-of-referral leases, "marketing fees" keyed to patient volume, and per-patient payments from a dispensary are prohibited whether or not the patient knows. Arrangements inside a properly formed professional entity, and bona fide employment or fair-market-value space rentals, are treated differently.
Worked example
An optical retailer offers an optometrist $25 for each patient examined in the store who then buys glasses. Calling it "advertising support" changes nothing: payment tied to referrals is fee splitting, and both the payer and the optometrist face exposure.
Traps
- Believing patient disclosure legalizes a kickback.
- Confusing a fair-market lease with a percentage-of-revenue arrangement.
- Assuming only the employer can be disciplined.