CLINICAL

  CONTACT LENSES

EVALUATE PURCHASE STEPS

HOW AND FROM WHERE DO YOU PURCHASE CONTACT LENSES?

JASON R. MILLER, O.D., M.B.A., F.A.A.O.

WITH THE wealth of options for purchasing your contact lenses, it may be hard to identify which is the most cost effective and efficient for this important part of your practice.

Here are questions to ask yourself to make this determination:

HOW?

Let’s start with the how to buy contact lenses. Establish a process by answering the following:

• Who is ordering?

• How often are they purchased?

• Via phone or online?

• How do the orders get tracked from purchase through delivery?

• How do the orders get to your patient (direct-to-customer vs. in-office pickup)?

Most EHR systems do not automatically order contact lenses. Doing so usually requires someone to manually place the order for the practice. All the above are important questions, and ones that can lead to organization fairly quickly.

WHERE?

Next, let’s look at the where to buy contact lenses. Do you buy from:

• Each specific manufacturer?

• A wholesale distributor?

(A caveat: Some lenses are available only through their specific company, but most manufacturers work with wholesale distributors.)

Our patients judge whether to buy their contact lenses from us based on price and service. Similarly, we should use the same criteria to evaluate distributors.

Price. The price may seem like an easy thing to evaluate, but it often becomes convoluted. The price changes if you purchase in smaller vs. larger quantities; if you are involved in a specific organization; if you order through a buying group vs. directly through the manufacturer; and if you stock a certain amount of lenses in your practice. Also, does the source charge for shipping? Will the source include any relevant rebates? All these are factors.

Service. Service is a factor as well. How much is shipping directly to your office or your patients? Do you have a representative to meet with in case an issue arises? Inevitably, some patients return contact lenses due to comfort or vision changes and will want some sort of credit for them; therefore, how does the company handle returns?

Finally, is there some sort of business advice or counseling offered that may be useful in managing this area of your business? If you are ordering through a distributor, it can often see all your purchases and provide guidance. For example, the distributor may help you decide which lenses provide the best potential profit margin.

YOUR BUSINESS MODEL

If you are only looking at the price, you may be missing a key piece of the puzzle. The complete picture may lead you to join a specific doctor-alliance group and/or utilize a specific distributor.

Don’t get caught up in the salesmanship of this business. Take a step back, and look at this cycle. What process is most efficient? What process provides you the best price with the level of service you are looking for? Build relationships with the companies that fit your model of doing business. OM

DR. MILLER is a partner at Eyecare Professionals of Powell, in Powell, Ohio, on the board of the Ohio Optometric Association and is an adjunct faculty member for The Ohio State University College of Optometry. To comment on this article, visit tinyurl.com/OMcomment.