Optometry : journal of the American Optometric Association
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The aim of this analysis was to describe characteristics and trends of malpractice payments by optometrists since the inception of the National Provider Data Bank (NPDB) as they assumed increasing prescriptive authority. ⋯ Malpractice payments on behalf of optometrists are relatively infrequent (on average, less than 34 nationally each year) and usually relatively small (almost half less than $50,000). The frequency of payments and mean payments have increased little over the last 2 decades.