Pennsylvania Optometry Licensing and Glaucoma Certification

Pennsylvania is one of the simpler states for an optometrist who passed the full National Board of Examiners in Optometry (NBEO) series. The State Board of Optometry may license you without an examination if you passed all parts of NBEO, and its licensure snapshots list no experience requirement. If your licensing exam was not NBEO, a second door opens after four years of practice in another state. What makes Pennsylvania distinctive is the way it splits prescribing authority: therapeutic certification is separate from the license, and glaucoma certification is separate again, with its own liability insurance minimum and a new license number when it is granted.

The details below come from the board's licensure snapshots, 49 Pa. Code chapter 23 and the board's Act 225 glaucoma mailer (revised June 6, 2025).

Can Pennsylvania license you without an exam?

The board's therapeutic and glaucoma snapshots quote the reciprocity rule. On written application and payment of the regular examination fee, the board may license without examination an applicant who is at least 21 and who either:

• passed "a standard examination in optometry in any other state or all parts of the examination given by the National Board of Examiners in Optometry," where those standards equal or exceed Pennsylvania's; or
• "is licensed in another state and has practiced in that state for a minimum of four years immediately preceding application."

For NBEO holders, the first path is the one that matters, and both snapshots state "No Experience Requirement." The board's main page lists the NBEO scores it looks for as "Parts 1, 2A & 2B or BS (1) and CS (2) and Clinical Skills/VRICS examination, or PC (3) and the TMOD for therapeutic licenses," which covers the older and current versions of the NBEO series.

The snapshots also describe Act 41, which requires Pennsylvania boards to license an applicant who holds a current license "from another state, territory or country whose licensing requirements are substantially equivalent to or exceed the requirements in this Commonwealth" and who meets the act's other criteria. The board's rule implementing it is 49 Pa. Code section 23.27a. For most ODs with NBEO scores, the reciprocity rule is the more direct path; see states that license optometrists without years of practice.

What are the three levels of Pennsylvania licensure?

The board publishes separate snapshots for diagnostic, therapeutic and therapeutic glaucoma licensure.

• Diagnostic. The base license.
• Therapeutic. Certification to prescribe and administer pharmaceutical agents for therapeutic purposes. You qualify by showing either that you completed at least 100 hours in prescribing and administering therapeutic agents as a condition of graduation and passed a licensure exam that tested it, or that you completed a board-approved 100-hour course and passed an approved exam on the subject. TMOD is required for therapeutic licenses.
• Therapeutic and glaucoma. Certification to treat glaucoma under section 4.2 of the Optometric Practice and Licensure Act (63 P.S. section 244.4b). The board's mailer says this covers primary open angle, exfoliation and pigmentary glaucoma.

An optometrist coming from a state where glaucoma treatment is simply part of the license still applies for Pennsylvania's certification separately. Glaucoma certification in California, Texas and Pennsylvania compares the three systems.

Who qualifies for Pennsylvania glaucoma certification?

You must already hold therapeutic certification. The board's mailer then sorts optometrists into two categories by how they earned it:

• Category one: therapeutic certification through 100 hours of pharmaceutical education required for graduation plus an NBEO exam that tested pharmaceuticals. The board says candidates who passed NBEO on or after April 1, 1993 were likely certified this way, because NBEO first included pharmaceutical testing then. These optometrists file the glaucoma application with a signed verification stating the month and year they passed the exam.
• Category two: therapeutic certification through a stand-alone 100-hour course and the TMOD exam. These optometrists also submit certificates for at least 18 hours of board-approved glaucoma CE completed after Act 225 took effect.

Both categories must verify compliance with Pennsylvania's liability insurance minimums for glaucoma certification: $1,000,000 per occurrence and $3,000,000 annual aggregate. The glaucoma certification fee is $25 under 49 Pa. Code section 23.91. One practical consequence surprises people: "All optometrists who are granted certification to treat glaucoma will receive a new license number," and the board warns that pre-printed prescription pads must be reordered. If you are credentialed with payers under your Pennsylvania number, that change has to flow through to them as well.

What do Pennsylvania licenses cost?

From 49 Pa. Code section 23.91, as of October 2026:

• License application: $25.
• Therapeutic certification application: $25.
• Glaucoma certification application: $25.
• Biennial renewal of the optometrist license: $135.

These are among the lowest board fees anywhere, which is why the real cost of a Pennsylvania license is time: gathering exam records, therapeutic training proof and verifications. Applications run through the PA Licensing System (PALS). The board reserves its ST-OPTOMETRY@PA.GOV mailbox for letters of good standing, exam information, transcripts, disciplinary documents and other outside verifications, so other boards and your school should send documents there.

How many CE hours does Pennsylvania require?

Under 49 Pa. Code section 23.82, every licensee completes at least 30 hours of board-approved CE in the two years before each biennial renewal, including at least 2 hours of approved child abuse recognition and reporting training. On top of that:

• Therapeutically certified optometrists take at least 6 of the 30 hours on prescribing and administering therapeutic agents.
• Glaucoma-certified optometrists take at least 4 of the 30 hours on glaucoma treatment. Up to 4 glaucoma hours can count toward the 6 therapeutic hours, as long as the total reaches 30.
• The 18 glaucoma hours a category two optometrist takes to qualify count toward the 30 for the period in which they are completed.

Licensees certify their CE on the renewal application, and the rule says false certifications are grounds for discipline. The board may audit at random. A licensee found short must make up the missing hours within six months of the citation or discipline, and those make-up hours cannot be reused for the current period. For a multi-state OD, Pennsylvania's child abuse hours are the item most often missed; see optometry CE requirements across states.

Will Pennsylvania board staff tell you how your case will go?

No. The board's page states that neither the board nor its staff or counsel may give legal advice or advisory opinions, "or any indication as to how the Board would vote on any given case or scenario." If your file has a disciplinary history or an unusual exam record, plan for that uncertainty rather than waiting on an informal answer.

Should you hand off the Pennsylvania paperwork?

Our Optometry License, One State service is $699 for Pennsylvania. We confirm which reciprocity basis fits your record, request NBEO scores and verifications from every state you have held, assemble therapeutic training proof, prepare the PALS application with a question-by-question guide and track it. A Therapeutic, Glaucoma or Legend Drug Certification Add-On ($249) prepares the glaucoma certification, including the category documentation and insurance verification. You answer and sign every application, carry the required coverage and pay the board. Annual Renewal and CE Tracking ($299 per license, per year) keeps the child abuse, therapeutic and glaucoma hours lined up with your other states. See the Pennsylvania licensing page to compare states.