California CodesBusiness and Professions Code - BPCDivision 2 — Healing ArtsChapter 5.5 — Registered Dispensing OpticiansArticle 1 — General ProvisionsSection 2553.6
(a) The board shall deny any application for registration under this chapter if any person licensed as a physician and surgeon, for whom the applicant, in accordance with Section 2564.90, proposes to fill any prescription, has any proprietary interest, or has designated or arranged for any other person to have any proprietary interest in or with the applicant.
(b)(1) The board may, in accordance with Section 2555, suspend, revoke, or refuse to renew the certificate of any individual or firm under this chapter, if such individual or firm, after the effective date of this section, fills, or has filled, while holding a certificate issued pursuant to this chapter, any prescription issued by any person licensed under Chapter 5 (commencing with Section 2000) who has any proprietary interest, or has designated or arranged for any other person to have any proprietary interest, in or with such individual or firm.
(2) Such penalties shall be in addition to, and not to the exclusion of, any other remedies or penalties provided by law.
(3) “Proprietary interest,” for the purposes of this section, means any membership, coownership, stock ownership, legal or beneficial interest, any other proprietary interest, or profit-sharing arrangement, designated or arranged or held, directly or indirectly in any form, in or with any individual or firm applying for registration or registered under this chapter, except stock ownership in a corporation which is listed on a stock exchange regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission if the stock is acquired in a transaction conducted through such stock exchange.
(c) This section shall apply only to a dispensing optician required to be registered pursuant to Chapter 5.5 (commencing with Section 2550) and shall not be construed to modify Section 2557, or to affect the fitting of prescription lenses by an assistant pursuant to Section 2544.
Notes
Requires denial of dispensing-optician registration when a prescribing physician has a prohibited proprietary interest and allows suspension, revocation, or nonrenewal for filling that physician's prescription. Defines proprietary interest broadly but excludes exchange-listed stock acquired through the regulated exchange; applies only to registered dispensing opticians, does not modify the referenced section, and does not affect assistant fitting under another referenced provision.
Use as reference
Lexinter.net | California Code, Business and Professions Code - BPC § 2553.6 | https://laws.lexinter.net/codes/california/business-and-professions-code/division-2/chapter-5-5/article-1/section-2553-6