Texas Law Banning Optometry Cost Disclosure Gets Harsh Reception

A Texas law prohibiting vision benefit plans from steering customers to certain optometrists based on discounts likely violates free speech protections, a federal appears court panel strongly hinted during oral arguments Wednesday.

Chief Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod was unpersuaded by Texas’s arguments that the ban limits only false or misleading information, not all pricing communications.

“Then why didn’t the legislature include that qualification?” Walker Elrod said.

Walker Elrod became impatient after Evan Greene, a lawyer with the Texas attorney general’s office, hedged when asked if the law would be constitutional if the court decides the existing language doesn’t clearly limit ...