1. (a) A person who is engaged in the business of a dispensing optician, other than an optometrist, therapeutic optometrist, or licensed physician, may not have:

   1. (1) an interest in the practice, books, records, files, equipment, or materials of an optometrist or therapeutic optometrist; or
   2. (2) except as provided by Subsection (c), an interest in the premises or space occupied by an optometrist or therapeutic optometrist for the practice of optometry or therapeutic optometry.
2. (b) An optometrist, therapeutic optometrist, or licensed physician who is engaged in the business of a dispensing optician and who owns an interest in the practice, books, records, files, equipment, or materials of another optometrist or therapeutic optometrist shall maintain a separate set of books, records, files, and accounts in connection with that interest.
3. (c) Subsection (a)(2) does not apply if the interest is a lease for a specific term without retention of the present right of occupancy on the part of the dispensing optician.
4. (d) Section 351.364(d) applies to this section.

Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 388, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1999.