VIEWPOINT

VISION PLANS AND BUSINESS

THIS MONTH, OM TACKLES THE SUBJECT OF MVCPS WITH ANALYSIS

JIM THOMAS
Editorial Director

EMOTIONAL RESPONSES to managed vision care plans (MVCPs) are not all that unusual in optometry. However, for this month’s focus on MVCPs, Optometric Management sidesteps emotion in favor of discussing how to make better business decisions about vision care plans.

Why take this approach? For one, 75% of patients used some kind of MVCP/insurance coverage for the 113.9 million eye exams performed in the United States last year, according to the Vision Council’s “US Optical Industry Report Card.” To fail to analyze MVCPs in this environment, then, would be to forego a significant opportunity. Or, as Jay Binkowitz writes, “the question of whether to accept vision care plans is no longer a question.” (See “Manage Managed Vision Care Plans,” p.18.)

TAKE A BUSINESS APPROACH

Mr. Binkowitz argues that it’s time to manage MVCPs in order to be profitable. To do so, he provides step-by-step approaches to assessing the vitality of plans and successfully utilizing plans.

Whatever you ultimately decide, it should be based on “a thorough and objective analysis,” notes John Rumpakis, O.D., in “Look at Managed Vision Care Through a New Lens” (p.20). One of the foundations of this analysis is chair cost. Dr. Rumpakis provides an outline for calculating this number, as well as scenarios that show how the number of exams per hour can dramatically affect profit and loss.

PRESENT VALUE AND BENEFITS

Another aspect to success with MVCPs is how your practice reacts to them, specifically the patient question, “Is this going to be covered?” Steve Vargo, O.D., offers four strategies for shifting the consumer’s focus from cost to value in this month’s “Marketing” column on p.50. And in “Scriptopedia” (p.64), Mark Hinton provides a “golden” method for encouraging the staff to use language that moves away from “insurance” and instead discusses “benefits.”

At times, business discussions can get weighed down by emotional arguments that aren’t necessarily productive. When this occurs, consider losing the weight with an analytical approach. OM