Sixty-seven percent of consumers use insurance to cover both their eye exam and eyewear, according to Jobson Optical Research’s Eyewear & Eye Care Consumer Patterns Insight Survey. Nineteen percent use insurance just for their exam. Six percent use their benefit to purchase eyeglasses and sunwear while another six percent do not use insurance at all. Three percent of those surveyed said they don’t know whether they use insurance.
Looking at these numbers (67 percent used insurance for eye exam plus eyewear and 19 percent used it for an exam only) reveals that at least 86 percent of the patients coming through the door of the practices surveyed have some level of third-party eye coverage. With that much of the practice being affected by third parties, we can’t afford to just see patients and hope that things will work out positively. Here are five questions you must answer if you want to manage your practice most effectively.
1. What is the total percentage of third-party patients in your office?
2. What is the percentage for each third- party coming through your door (e.g.: Medicare, VSP, United Healthcare)?
3. What is the average profit realized from each third party? (Helpful hint: Rank the third parties based on profit to your practice.)
4. If a third party covers frames and lenses, is your patient use of their own frames less than 10 percent?
5. Does your staff have working scripts to use with third-party patients to overcome the “I just want what the plan covers” mentality?
Make sure you have answers to each of these questions to ensure your practice moves forward this year.
