Contact lens fitting fees for returning patients

[Happylady]

I am wondering what other places do. We charge a fitting and evaluation fee for every contact lens patient every year. It is the same for new and returning patients. Even if nothing has changed the patient is charged the same. That is one reason we call it an evaluation fee as well as a fitting fee.

We charge more for toric, bifocal, and monovision fits and evaluations. Do you?

What does your office do? Do you charge more for new fits then for returning patients? Do some offices not charge a fitting fee if nothing has changed and no follow up visit is needed?

Do you charge for contact lens training? We do. I expected people to complain but so far only one or two people have.

[drk]

What's fair?

I think if a consumer receives care, the consumer should pay for it.

I also think that if a consumer doesn't receive care, the consumer should not pay for it.

With those fundamentals out of the way:

Yes, this office charges for contact lens services, just like any other.

As to the structure of the care given, that's a different story.

[icare]

Charge more for new patients and refits. Always charge for services rendered. A contact lens wearer requires more care than a non-contact lens wearer.

[chip anderson]

Our new fitting fee, includes, instruction (I personally teach them until I think they can do this alone), re-instruction if first time failed to sink in, follow-up care at two weeks and any addittional for three months including any lens change required (with a few exceptions) care kit, etc.

Old patient's usually do not require anything more than change in Rx and quick slit-lamp exam and ordering new lenses. Very little more service than a replacement lens. We don't charge near as much (usually replace ment cost only which is about 2 times our cost on rigid lenses) and usual replacement cost on disposables.

However when I look at our bottom line I think our fees are too low.

Chip

[Stonegoat]

I charge a flat fee for all new fits. I usually do not charge for a refit...say switching someone from AV2 to Oasys. At least in our office, CLs are a lost leader.....:(

[cocoisland58]

It's the same fee for new fits, re-fits, and everything else. We do not charge extra for toric, etc. We figured out an average fee. No one complains. It is what it is. Follow up visits for new wearers and refits are included as is the contact lens class. It's easier on everyone if things are kept simple.

[Jubilee]

We have a fee structure.

New to contacts Spherical costs less than toric, which costs less than mono VA or MF. Our highest fee is for hard lenses in multifocal styles

New to office, but keeping same type or refits (our patient new brand or type of fit) one flat price.

We do not charge patients who only require a change in power. However our initial fees a bit higher..

[Happylady]

What about when a new patient comes in with their contact lens boxes and says they are completely happy with them? Some fee as any new patient or less?

[chip anderson]

Happy:
While I wouldn't fill a Rx from a box, I have to be "completely happy" with the fit also. If they're happy and the lens doesn't fit, they gonna git sometin' else. If I put a trial lens on the eye (after measurements and observation of the eye) and it looks fine in the slit-lamp, etc. I'm sure not gonna look for trouble changing it even if a new super zoomo model just came out that transmitts oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen and vodka.
However with the "seasoned" patient you are not gonna have to teach them how to get them in and out, find out inside from outside, or be bothered everytime they get a piece of trash under them. So you can charge such a patient a little less. Of course you can get by with charging as much as you can get by with.
But one should have some anticipation of how much fuss an bother, revising Rx and fit many be encountered. A cone is gonna be worth a lot more, a bifocal or trifocal with a high cylinder is gonna probabaly require a lot more time and several more lenses and a medium curvature spherical Rx.

Chip

[MarcE]

Now that one of the questions have been answered, how about the other one?

Do you charge extra for a returning CL wearing patient compared to a "normal" exam; even if they don't have a change in CLs?

We do not. Same price for the exam, even though the CL exam takes a few more minutes and there is more liability.

CL patients are also a loss leader for us too. Personaly, I feel that the optical is subsidizing the CL patients.

[chip anderson]

And to think that I can remember when the CL subsidised the optical and the prosthetic eye department.

[pauly47]

On top of exam fees, a CL fit/eval fee is applied to all CL pts. We have 4 levels all with increasing fees:
1) established sph;
2)new sph., est toric/mono, est EW
3) new toric/mono, new EW, est bf, est rgp
4) new bf, new rgp.

all new pts get sit down training and all est have care regimen explored (tell me how you take out and clean lenses, change case, etc...). New have 1-3 f/u (that's follow up in case you were wondering) depending on cl type.

[ilanh]

We charge a flat fee of $45 for every returning contact lens patient. This is a "contact lens analysis" charge. It assumes that we are checking the fit, verifying the prescription, doing an over-refraction and also dispensing a spectacle prescription. It doesn't matter what the patient is wearing disposable, toric, RGP...it's the same fee. If we do nothing at all except verify that the contacts are functioning perfectly we still charge the fee. Even if the patient doesn't come with their contacts and we have to put on a sample pair it's still the same fee. If we need to change the power, we still charge the same fee. However, if there is any need to change the contact brand or to convert to monovision etc then there are ancillary charges.

Incidentally, I assume it's OK for me to post my fee since they are available to the public and not proprietary information in any way.

Incidentally, we charge $119 for a complete fit of non-torics and $169 for toric or RGP fit. These initial charges include fit, training, and three months of follow-up.