Optometrists are permitted to practise in a variety of settings, many of which require them to have a written Independent Contractor Agreement (“Agreement”) in place.
The circumstances in which members do NOT need to have an Agreement are the easiest to determine. You do not need an Agreement if you practise:
- on your own
- with another member of the College who is engaged in the practice of the profession
- with an Ontario-registered physician who is engaged in the practice of medicine
Ontario Regulation 119/94 also creates an exception so that optometrists who work in hospitals, government, or universities with others are NOT required to have Agreements.
Members practising in almost every other setting MUST have an Agreement in place, including but not limited to the following situations:
- Members who practise at an optical store, even if it is only once a week
- Members engaged in practice with corporations that coordinate mobile eye clinics
- Members engaged in practice with an optometrist, group of optometrists, or corporation owned by optometrists, where some or all of the optometrists are not licensed to practise in Ontario
- Members engaged in practice with an optometrist or a physician who is strictly acting as a manager and not seeing patients
- Members who are practising in association with a surgical centre (and are not employed by an ophthalmologist performing the surgeries)