The Official VisionWeb Blog

Have you ever discussed a medical insurance deductible with a patient and THEIR deductible is YOUR fault? Or has the patient ever been surprised that their co-pay was $45 at the checkout? These are telltale signs that you have an opportunity to educate your patients on how their medical insurance can cover their eye health conditions.

Most patients do not understand their insurance coverage, especially as it relates to medical eye care, and therefore do not use their insurance to its fullest. When you provide medical eye care, the patient is more loyal than the “retail only” patient. In order to build a lasting relationship, patients should know that optometrists are qualified to provide medical eye care. 

Jerry Godwin from OMS shows us how to verify insurance before patients arrive at your practice so that you don't miss out on revenue. We've included his action plan below, but you can read more information on his website.

As an optician, you're the final person that a patient usually interacts with in the practice. Which also means that the patient's time with you could be what they recall most clearly after they leave the office. When patients get handed off to you, it's important that you have the tools and resources available to make their time in the dispensary go by quickly and enjoyably and have them walking out the door after ordering the perfect frames.

Having a practice management and EHR system that keeps the entire practice working off of one smooth workflow will help make things easier for you in the dispensary. Let's take a look at a few things most opticians love about Uprise EHR & PM because it makes their jobs easier.

For anyone who owns their own practice, medical credentialing is probably something you're familiar with. If you're researching what you need to open your own optometry practice or to move to a different state, then you'll need to know how the medical credentialing process works for ODs.

In order to work with insurance providers, you'll need to complete a review. Jerry Godwin from OMS provided us with his intelligence on medical credentialing from starting the process to what happens after you've been approved. Keep reading to make sure you're in compliance with your state's laws and requirements.

Your dispensary is where the majority of sales happen for your eyecare practice. When your patient walks out with more than one pair of frames, that can be big benefit for your profits. But everyone in the biz knows that second pair frame sales aren't always easy to come by. The opticians in your practice play a big role in making your final frame sales, but everyone in your practice should be encouraging sales throughout the entire practice.

We've got 4 expert tips to help you and your team overcome your monthly sales goals by boosting second pair sales. What has worked the best for increasing sales in your practice?

Running a successful optometric practice requires skills that aren’t often learned in an optometry student's curriculum. From billing management to conflict resolution, these are non-optometry related skills that most optometrists develop over time. However, we think even new grads can get a jumpstart on filling their skill gap without years of experience.

Rather than learning the skills the hard way, we compiled a short list of the four basic skills an optometric practice owner needs to master to run a successful practice.