# Eight Business Hours: The Rule That Decides Where a Reorder Goes
Every contact lens prescription you write starts a clock. Most practices never notice it.
The FTC Contact Lens Rule says if a patient orders lenses online, the seller must verify the prescription with you. If your office doesn’t respond in eight business hours, the order is verified and can ship. Not replying means yes.
This isn’t a loophole. It’s the way the rule works. It lets a patient with a valid prescription buy lenses anywhere, so office delays can’t block them. This rule has been around for years, but most owners misunderstand what it really decides.
The rule only decides one thing: the seller can’t be blocked. It doesn’t decide where the patient buys. By the time you get a verification request, the patient has already chosen. Usually, it happens at night, when they’re out of lenses and grab their phone.
Nearly 40% of patients already order contacts online. Most don’t call the practice. The verification request is usually the first sign the order happened. For the office, it feels like busywork, not a chance to keep a sale.
The eight-hour window is real, but it’s the wrong battle. If you focus on answering requests fast, you just get efficient at confirming lost revenue.
But the rule doesn’t control the real decision. The patient chooses where to buy long before any fax is sent. That moment happens in your office.
A patient leaves with a paper prescription and no easy way to use it. Three weeks later, it’s 10 p.m. and they need lenses. The simplest option wins. The practice isn’t even in the running because nothing was put in the patient’s hand to help.
Every printed contact lens prescription means about $300 goes elsewhere. The same trend shows up with glasses. Between 35% and 50% of patients at independent practices leave without filling their eyeglass prescription. This isn’t about loyalty. It’s about what the patient left with.
Dr. Brianna Rhue, an optometrist and co-founder of Dr. Contact Lens, puts it simply: if a patient has to call you to reorder, your process isn’t working. Extra steps mean they’ll go somewhere else that’s easier.
Practices that keep the reorder do one thing differently. Before the patient even leaves the parking lot, the order is on their phone.
No printouts. No “call us when you need more.” The prescription, benefits, rebates, and a reorder link are on the patient’s phone. They don’t have to remember anything or wait. When they run out at 10 p.m., your practice is the easiest option.
A short script makes this easy. If a patient wants a copy, say, “Absolutely! I’ll text it to you now with your benefits and rebates.” It works because it gives them no reason to look elsewhere. The system handles the rest. (More on it in the 30-second script.)
When you make reordering easy, some patients will still shop around, and that’s fine. But verification requests change meaning. They’re no longer your only signal a sale happened.
Verification requests become rare, as they should be. If you see five requests but fifty reorders through your own link, you know where you stand. If you have only requests and no idea about your own reorders, you’re just guessing.
That visibility is the real gap. If you don’t track lost orders, you don’t feel the loss. Dr. Rhue says practices only change when staying the same hurts more than changing. The eight-hour rule helps you see it. Every request is a receipt for revenue you didn’t keep.
Count the requests. For two weeks, log every prescription verification that comes in. Don’t try to answer faster. Just track them. Compare that number to your own reorders for the same period. Most owners have never compared these numbers. This gives you a real read on where reorders go, and it only takes a tally sheet.
Change what the patient leaves with. Decide what a finished prescription should look like. If it’s just paper, you’re leaking revenue. If it’s a text with the prescription, benefits, and a reorder link, you keep the decision in your practice.
Have a go-to line for the end of the exam that puts reordering in the patient’s hand. Write it, practice it, and make it fit your style. Contact lens ordering is one of the five things that run an eye care practice for a reason.
It’s easy to think the eight-hour window is working against you. It’s not. This is a neutral clock that applies to every practice.
The real problem is when a patient leaves with a prescription and nothing else. Close that gap and the clock becomes irrelevant. The reorder will come back to you automatically. You can automate that, but the words at the end of the exam still matter.
See what your patients would see. It is self-serve, takes about two minutes, and there is no call. → portal.drcontactlens.com/users-demo