New This Week
Importance of Prescribing from the Exam Chair
Review of Optometric Business Professional Editor Mark Wright, OD, FCOVD, urges optometrists to prescribe eyecare treatment plans from the exam chair. Rather than use words such as “offer,” suggest” and “recommend,” Dr. Wright emphasizes the importance of “prescribing” treatment plans to patients. Doctors can outline other options for the patient, but at the end of the day, it is essential that you arrive at a prescription that you, as the doctor, deliver while the patient is in your exam chair. >>READ MORE>>
Sunwear
Expand Sunwear Offering: Tinted Sportswear Lenses
By Donald S. Teig, OD, FAAO
Providing patients with sunwear tailored to specific sports or activities creates a specialty that distinguishes your practice and dispensary. It is a way to give patients customized care while protecting their eyes from sun exposure. >>READ MORE>>
Coding and Billing
Eliminate Accounts Receivable: Establish Billing and Collection Procedures
By Pamela Miller, OD, JD
Establish policies prevent uncollected income by requiring full or partial payment at the time of service or placement of orders. When that fails, collection agencies and small claims court offer ways of recouping payment–sometimes at too steep a cost to make it worth it. >>READ MORE>>
Marketing
Find New Patients: Ask Existing Patients About Family Needing Exams
By Kent Yount, OD
Existing patients are your best source of referrals. Set up a system in your electronic health record or practice management software to solicit names of family who may need exams when booking appointments for new patients.
>>READ MORE>>
More Than Half of ECPs Sell Contact Lenses on Their Web Site
Some 57.7 percent of ECPs sell contact lenses on their web site, according to Jobson Optical Research’s 2010 ECP Internet Usage Study. Some 16.3 percent sell sunwear, while another 16.3 percent sell prescription eyewear and 9.6 percent sell other goods on their site.
Click HERE to read more from Review of Optometric Business professional editors Carole Burns, OD, FCOVD, and Mark Wright, OD, FCOVD, on the decision to sell products on your practice’s web site.
ABB CONCISE Partners with Crystal PM
ABB CONCISE has partnered with Crystal Practice Management to provide Crystal PM customers with the convenience of ordering their contact lenses from ABB CONCISE through their practice management system. Crystal PM and ABB CONCISE are fully integrated, and customers can begin ordering from ABB CONCISE immediately. >>READ MORE>>
Prima Eye Group Offers “Formula for Practice Success”
In their book Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, Dan and Chip Heath explain why people who have the motivation to change sometimes don’t. Or can’t, Jerry Hayes, OD, co-founder of optometric alliance Prima Eye Group, points out. “Often the problem is NOT a lack of motivation,” says Hayes. “The problem is that people don’t know how to achieve the change they want.” >>READ MORE>>
ROB Poll
Most Sought After Skillset in New Optometric Associate or Partner:
Expertise for New Practice Niche
Asked what they would most seek in a new optometric associate or partner, 45 percent of ROB readers said they would like the new associate or partner to possess expertise that would allow the practice to offer a new niche like low vision, vision therapy, etc. Eighteen percent said they would most value an associate or partner with an understanding of finances and how best to grow the practice. Another 18 percent said they would most like a new associate or partner with a strong work ethic including an openness to working long hours and weekends.
