The state board that oversees optometrists has established an advisory “work group” as it considers changes in response to a controversy about optometrists it improperly licensed in recent years by waiving testing requirements.
But the plan doesn’t sit well with Sen. Stephen Meredith, R-Leitchfield, whose measure to create an outside task force to review operations of the Kentucky Board of Optometric Examiners died in the 2026 legislative session that ended April 15.
Meredith, chairman of the Senate Health Services Committee, said his main concern is that the board handpicked a group of eye care professionals that includes no legislators.
“I was very disappointed that the optometrists continue to ignore the legislature,” said Meredith, who had urged the board to include lawmakers. “They’re entitled to do whatever they want to do but I don’t know what the value is if they’re not going to have legislative participation.”
As a result, Meredith said legislative leaders have agreed to create a separate task force in the next few months to review the board’s operations and report to the legislature.
“I assume there will be Senate and House membership,” he said.
The state optometry board on April 22 posted on its website the names of the work group members it approved April 16. They include Dr. Mary Beth Morris, the current president of the optometry board; board member Dr. Ian McWherter; four more optometrists, who hold a four-year doctorate in eye care, and three ophthalmologists, medical doctors with eye care and surgical training.
Morris, the current board president and spokeswoman, said in an email that the members for the work group were selected from individuals who nominated themselves as well as nominees from the Kentucky Optometric Association and the University of Pikeville’s College of Optometry.
“Our board remains committed in our efforts to continue to protect the public and regulate the profession of optometry in Kentucky,” her email said.
Canadian ‘loophole’ closed
Meanwhile, in response to ongoing criticism of the status of at least 21 optometry graduates improperly granted licenses between 2020 and 2023, the board has approved yet another in a series of regulatory changes. On April 15 it filed a new emergency regulation — effective immediately — eliminating the option of an easier alternative test for those who failed to pass a standard national test required in all 50 states. By 2027, all licensure candidates must have passed part 1 of the three-part national test to obtain or renew an optometry license, under the latest regulation.
The board’s previous decision in February to allow those candidates to substitute a Canadian version of the exam for a more rigorous national exam on science and medicine drew a barrage of criticism at a public hearing in March.
The National Board of Examiners in Optometry, which administers the standard test, called allowing the Canadian exam a “loophole” that would cast “a shadow of doubt over every practicing optometrist,” according to hearing results posted on the board’s website. The hearing also included testimony that two states — Nevada and New Hampshire — have revoked licensure reciprocity for Kentucky optometrists over concerns about standards.
And 19 Kentucky optometrists in a letter expressed opposition to allowing the Canadian exam, saying it cast doubt on qualifications of all Kentucky’s optometrists.
“A consistent licensure standard is essential not only for patient safety, but also for maintaining confidence in the profession,” the letter said.
‘Special loophole’ still open
Still, Kentucky has allowed the improperly licensed optometrists to continue to practice, with restrictions on some eye surgeries, despite calls from the national board that they be suspended from practice if they haven’t met licensure requirements.
“Allowing these individuals to continue practicing raises substantial concerns about compliance, fairness and most importantly, patient safety.”
– National Board of Examiners in Optometry
As first reported last year by the Kentucky Lantern, among those who obtained a waiver from testing was Dr. Hannah Ellis, whose father is Dr. Joe Ellis, a prominent Benton optometrist who had served on the board since 2021. He was board president when he abruptly resigned in Dec. 2025 amid findings by the Kentucky attorney general that the board had violated state law to waive licensure requirements for some licensees.
Despite those findings, the board “wrongly pretends that the invalidly waived-in individuals hold a valid license,” the national board said.
The Kentucky board has not fully explained why it granted the waivers, other than to state some were granted during the COVID pandemic because of travel and in-person gathering restrictions. But records reviewed by the Kentucky Lantern found the waivers continued after the pandemic emergency ended in May 2023.
The national board and other critics also object to the Kentucky board continuing to allow an alternative, written test for part 3 of the national exam for optometrists granted waivers, which tests diagnostic and treatment skills in a clinic with people posing as patients.
The national board, in written comments, referred to a “special loophole” for those granted waivers from taking the in-person test.
The board did not change that exception in its most recent regulation.
Morris, who became optometry board president in February, has said its members are “committed to protecting the public, maintaining transparency, and ensuring a consistent and accountable licensing process moving forward.”
Meredith said he believes the board is trying to fix problems but believes more outside oversight is essential.
“I think the current board is sincere in getting its house in order,” he said. But, “You leave the impression you don’t want anyone from outside telling you what to do.”
Work group ‘skewed?’
The new advisory board to be called “The Patient Safety in Expanded Therapeutic Procedures Workgroup,” is to provide “expert guidance regarding training standards, credentialing, competency verification and patient safety protocols,” according to a March 31 board statement.
It also is to review “certain laser procedures” Kentucky optometrists are authorized to perform under state law, it said.
Kentucky’s politically influential optometrists number more than 900 and already have one of the broadest scopes of practice in the nation under changes the group won during a 2011 lobbying blitz of the Kentucky General Assembly.
The Kentucky Lantern reported last year that optometrists are among the state’s top political donors.
The board enjoys almost complete control over licensure standards and the scope of practice of optometry, a change also approved in 2011 by lawmakers.
At the April 16 meeting where the state board approved its new advisory panel, Morris, board president, said she looks forward to its work.
“I’m really excited about the work group,” she said.
Not as excited is the Kentucky Academy of Eye Physicians and Surgeons, which represents ophthalmologists. About 100 of Kentucky’s 200 eye physicians are members.
In a statement, the academy said the panel of six optometrists and three ophthalmologists appeared “skewed” toward optometrists and has no legislative oversight. It declined to nominate anyone.
“We will work closely in intentional collaboration with legislators, the (Kentucky Medical Association) and our optometry partners throughout the interim,” it said.
Dr. Chip Richardson, a Georgetown ophthalmologist and former president of the academy, said he views the new panel as a “workaround” to forestall any action by legislators and a move by the optometry board “to control the dialogue.”
The national board had nominated Dr. Rich Castillo as “an out of state expert” for the work group. But he was not selected, Castillo said in an interview.
Castillo is founding dean of the University of North Carolina Pembroke College of Optometric Medicine, is an optometrist and an ophthalmologist who “exceeds the criteria” for the work group, his nomination letter said.
Castillo said he has been working in optometry education and training for years, including in Kentucky, and isn’t sure why he wasn’t selected but said he is strongly opposed to waiving tests requirements for students unable to pass them.
If students fail, “That’s not the fault of the test,” he said.
Other panel members announced Wednesday include optometrists Drs. Ian Benjamin Gaddie, Aaron McNulty, and Mohammed Naja; and ophthalmologists Drs. Lawrence Tenkman, E. Britt Brockman (who is currently the chairman of the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees); and Inder Singal. All practice in Kentucky; Naja is on the faculty at the Kentucky College of Optometry at the University of Pikeville, the state’s only optometry school.
A ninth appointee from outside Kentucky is Dr. Nathan Lighthizer, associate dean of the Northeastern State University College of Optometry.