North Carolina General Statutes Chapter 90. Medicine and Allied Occupations § 90-236.1. Requirements for filling contact lens prescriptions

No person, firm or corporation licensed or registered under this Article shall fill a prescription or dispense lenses, other than spectacle lenses, unless the prescription specifically states on its face that the prescriber intends it to be for contact lenses and includes the type and specifications of the contact lenses being prescribed. No person, firm or corporation licensed under this Article shall fill a prescription beyond the expiration date stated on the face thereof.

Any person, firm or corporation that dispenses contact lenses on the prescription of a practitioner licensed under Articles 1 or 6 of this Chapter shall, at the time of delivery of the lenses, inform the recipient both orally and in writing that he return to the prescriber for insertion of the lens, instruction on lens insertion and care, and to ascertain the accuracy and suitability of the prescribed lens. The statement shall also state that if the recipient does not return to the prescriber after delivery of the lens for the purposes stated above, the prescriber shall not be responsible for any damages or injury resulting from the prescribed lens, except that this sentence does not apply if the dispenser and the prescriber are the same person.

Prescriptions filled pursuant to this section shall be kept on file by the prescriber and the person filling the prescription for at least 24 months after the prescription is filled.

Any person, firm or corporation dispensing, furnishing or supplying contact lenses in interstate commerce or at retail to recipients in this State, other than a practitioner licensed under Article 1 or Article 6 of this Chapter, is deemed a “dispensing optician” under G.S. 90-235 and is subject to the provisions of this Article.