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Updated: Jan 11, 2026

Binocular Dynamic Visual Acuity in Eyeglass-Corrected Myopic Patients
Published on: March 29, 2022
Passive Verification: A Loophole Creating Serious Risk for Patients' Eyesight
Ansh Shah1, Thomas L Steinemann
1Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine (A.S., T.L.S.), Cleveland, OH; and Division of Ophthalmology (T.L.S.), MetroHealth Medical Center, Cleveland, OH.
Objectives:
To examine rates of erroneous or expired prescription facsimile (FAX) requests submitted for passive verification (PV) at one practice site in Cleveland, OH.
Methods:
One thousand six hundred and eight PV FAX requests between January 1, 2019, and January 1, 2023, were collected from a county hospital (Metrohealth) in Cleveland, OH. These requests were grouped into separate categories detailing the errors in the requests and analyzed compared with previous data gathered at this site.
Results:
Of 1,608 requests, 681 (42.4%) were expired, 165 (10.3%) were not under the direct care of the ophthalmologist to whom the request was directed, and 159 (9.9%) did not have a proper fitting completed or were incorrect. The overall rate of erroneous prescriptions was 62.5%, up from 59.0% in a previous study completed at the same site.
Conclusion:
Passive verification still presents high rates of erroneous prescription verification. Amendments to the Contact Lens Rule have not improved previous erroneous rates at this site. With loopholes for third party vendors such as a short time window for the provider to review the prescription, PV errors remain.
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