Keeping Profit Margins High in Your Eyecare Practice

It's no secret that optometry practices can earn a whopping 30-40% net profit. Especially once the practice has gone through its first year of growing pains and had a chance to be established. 

How do you scale profits in a private optometry practice in terms of business development, staff, patient volume, and accepted payers? We did some research and collected the plans of financially successful practices to help guide you to the right track.

Keep reading to see a few of the top pieces of advice we found.

How Successful Practices Make Money

High-end customer service

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Train your opticians and front desk to tailor their interactions for the patient. Pride your practice on a generous return or adjustment policy for your frames and encourage year-long supplies for contact lenses. For your most frequently returning patients, usually about 20% of your patient base, send them special gifts and complimentary home delivery.

Reduce the number of medical vision plans you accept

If you're focusing on efficiency in terms of rate and percentage of reimbursement, you'll want to downsize your claim payers to only the most lucrative. However, if this isn't an option for you based on your existing and projected patient base, outsourcing your claims to a revenue cycle management service can preserve your existing volume. 

Rent a space in an area with above average household income

Although you might pay higher rent costs, it's easier to market your higher-end products to customers who can afford to purchase a second pair of lenses, prescription sunglasses, or accessories. Instead of renting a large space, find creative solutions for storage and room design in the best location.

Diversify

Try to balance vision and medical services. Hire staff with a variety of background in sales, customer service, and industries outside of optical. Make sure you're running revenue reports to see where you could be making more money regularly.


The best way to boost profits is through business management. Read our ebook to see what we're talking about.

OD HANDBOOK: Small Business, Big Profits VW BLOG

Editor's Note: This post was originally published in September 2019 and updated for accuracy on January 2023.

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