New Eyemed thread!

[optirep]

The question was about frame requirements!

If you are in a rural location it is true that you don't have to buy any frames at this time. Each Lux Rep has a list of what is considered rural areas. That however does not mean you will never have to buy frames. When you start making claims you may be asked at that time to buy!

You must display 150 frames at all times. If you are not seeing many lives. This may not be strickly enforced but agian if you do see lives you will be asked to carry them!

I have accounts in rural areas and I have them add 10 or 20 board spaces each visit so they won't get Zonked when the are asked to fill the buckets.

The deal on the table right now is 150 frames 10 free and 8 Months to pay. No bill for 3 months the 5 split bills. Plus if you pay by the 10 of each month you get 2% prompt pay for each month. (This deal could end at any time)

If you are a current ECPA member you can also get a sample fund program. You buy 100 frames 12 month dating and get 50 Pre-selected frames that you must replenish or adjust from time to time. This deal ends Oct. 12th

I hope this helps !!!

[Joann Raytar]

Thanks optirep! That explains why a couple of us had conflicting information.

One of our stores currently is enrolled in the first deal you mentioned. Is it too late for our more rural store to ask about the ECPA deal?

[optirep]

Jo,

If you were on ECPA before-you can do the deal until Oct. 12th

If you rural shop is on ECPA I would recomend this deal. After the 12th it MAY never happen again.

I like the 1 for 15 free frame deal better. It's like 6% better discount. But in a rural account the other deal may make better sense.

[Joann Raytar]

Lives?

...they have gone form 2 million lives to 30 million lives in less than 3 years.

Do these numbers include ECPA members? Does EyeMed see itself as becoming the largest provider in the near future? Do you have any idea where the largest concentration of lives come from (ex - the East Coast, West Coast)?

[optirep]

Jo,

30 million is all lives combined!

And I believe they would love to be the largest plan! V.S.P. Has been around for 30 or 40 years so they have a little head start.

Eyemed lives are all over! Some places have many more lives than others but that changes month to month.

New contrats are signed everyday.

Your reps should have a list of local and national contrats from Eyemed and ECPA

[Joann Raytar]

Is there an EyeMed website where folks could read up on some information?

[optirep]

https://WWW.EYMEDVISIONCARE.COM

You also file your claims at this site

[Mike Fretto]

We recieved a memo stating we would be getting started with EyeMed how does it affect our onsite lab. Are we able to process the eyeglasses or is it similar to VSP in that they have to be done at the contracted lab.

[harry a saake]

eyemed

:hammer: How many more lives will eyemed get, has anyone thought about the day that say everyone is on an eyemed plan? Can you afford to give up that much money? Insurance for glasses is a ripoff and is never going to be good for this business. There,s just a heck of a lot of gullible people out there.

[optirep]

Mike,

You can do your own lab work or use your own lab!

You make the most money when you do your own lab work!

Also if you sell the customer up to a varilux panamic or crizal coating (Or any premium product) you charge them 80% of your normal customary fees.

Insurance plans or not selling up and selling second pairs become more and more important when the economy starts to slow!

[optirep]

One more point!

Eyemed is one of the only funded plans that allows opticians to sign-Up. Opticians have been squeezed out of most plans unless the O.D. they hire is on the plan.

[Darris Chambless]

Hello Optirep,

I'm the guy you didn't want to see come in on this subject, but I promise not to go into all the details I've gone into with "rep" before. The long and short of it is this: Eyemed makes Luxottica more money, which there is nothing wrong with and I've never faulted them for what their doing. It's smart business. But I will limit the amount of business I do with them because I refuse to get myself or my patients caught up in the cogs.

I've heard the arguement of "If Eyemed makes more money wouldn't it stand to reason that prividers are making more money?" Some do but most don't.

There is a flaw in your reasoning reguarding the economy and the benefits therein to the Eyemed plan (so I pray you're not an economic anylist for the company because I'm sure they would see it differently which I will point out in a second.)

"Insurance plans or not selling up and selling second pairs become more and more important when the economy starts to slow!" Nothing could be more incorrect than that. It's just not possible to be more wrong. When the economy slows you do what you can to get MORE money into the economy i.e. increasing sales in any business, cutting taxes and lowering intrest rates to get people to start spending. That's where the economy comes from not from third party plans or reducing up sales.

Luxottica knows this as well and they use it to sell more of their plans to more would be providers. Luxottica isn't taking less to help with the slow economy and in fact are positioning themselves to take even more through administrative duties which are much less costly than warehousing and selling products.

This part is for everyone to see:

"Also if you sell the customer up to a varilux panamic or crizal coating (Or any premium product) you charge them 80% of your normal customary fees."

A business makes more charging 100% of their normal or customary fees. Not to mention their UC fees are usually based on the total income required (emphasisi on "required") to maintain the business and make a profit. So Eyemed is saying "Look how nice we are. We'll let you take 80% of your UC when the other guys make you take even less." To me, personally, that ain't a deal, it's a discount that I'm being forced to give. I don't want a company that has no financial stake in my business dictating how much money I will or won't take in through the promise of patients I may never see.

I would also like to analyze this same sentence a little more "Also if you"...YOU, the person doing all the work... "sell the customer up to a varilux panamic or crizal coating"... This would be an up sell which according to you isn't what one should do during an economic slowdown... "(Or any premium product)" Read the afore mentioned..."you charge them 80% of your normal customary fees." Translation you take 20% LESS than what you normally would be taking if you were set up on private pay. You don't gain anything by getting into this plan and in fact take 20% LESS than you normally would on the thinly veiled promise of patients (lives) that may or may not exist in your area. Plus you get to buy and maintain (10 months to pay or not) 150 pieces of Luxottica product

So in a nutshell, Luxottica increases frame sales via provider requirements. Luxottica gets more "lives" on their plan with an offer to save them money on eyewear which translates to more money for Luxottica. Then the provider makes 20% LESS on all sales to Eyemed patients and has 150 pieces of Luxottica inventory (which he or she must pay for eventually and maintain to stay on the plan) I'm failing to see where the "benefit" to me is. I can see where the benefit to Luxottica is but I'm more intrested in Me and what's in it for Me. I like to be able to eat and keep the doors open and I just can't do that by being overstocked on inventory and making 20% LESS for it.

So what did I miss? Was I asleep during Accounting 101 or what? I'm just curious, not to mention I ain't buyin' it. Taking LOSS never makes sense unless you can make it up on the front or the back end of the deal and you can't do that on this or any other plan. You LOSE 20%. I guess the positive to this is that you LOSE less on the Eyemed plan ;)

Keep in mind I'm not telling you any of this on a mean spirited or yelling manner. I'm simply telling it like it is and emphasizing where I feel it's necessary.

Take care,

Darris C.

[optirep]

Darris,

Eyemed or any insurance plan are not for everyone!

I have said it before: Luxottica is doing this for Luxottica.

If you have time in the day to see more patients and take no insurance them Eyemed or any other plan may not be for you!

As far as accounting goes. If you see 10 customers a day and profit $100 each but have time to see 12. And you can see 2 more but only profit 50$ off each you still made $100 more. Insurance plans are another from of advertising.

My point about the economy was: If YOUR business starts to slow you need to make the most out of every customer.(Second pairs ect.) If you can see more customer because of Eyemed you make more money! I understand you don't make as much as you would off private customers. But you make nothing if you don't see that customer! Half of nothing is nothing half of something is still something!

As far as the frames go: Most people need to carry many more than 150 frames. We just ask that 150 are ours. Most people would agree that Luxottica makes a good product. They would not sell 30 million frames a year if they did not.


Again: This is not for everyone! Each person needs to look at this plan and see if it makes sense for them. If you use V.S.P. or Davis it most likley will.

[EyeManFla]

OK, Here we go again...........

Rep, here is my question........

Rural accounts don't need to buck up the frame requirements,BUT, who at Eyexottica determines who is a rural account?

Case in point. There is a nice town 20 miles south of Sarasota,Florida call Venice. In this town, they have a Pearle Vision (run by very nice people, by the way). They sign on to Eye-med over a year and a half ago and get the required number of frames. Now, a few months down the road, a small little independent, let's call them oh...Venetian Optical...is contacted by Eyexottica and are told that as a "Rural" account they didn't have to meet the frame requirements to join Eyemed.

Now, the Doctor who owns the place...nice guy, but a Florida State grad......buys into this and signs up. (Oh, did I mention that he was told by Eyexottica that he would have an 'exclusive' in his little 'rural' area of Venice?) Well, the day after he does that, his manager informed him the the Pearle Vision Center.......1/2 down the street.....has been doing Eye-med for SIX months.

And it gets better.....three other Doctors in this 'rural' town called Venice were contacted with the same deal and promise of exclusivity! (and were they ticked off when they found out they didn't get much of a deal because Pearle beat them to the punch six months to a year earlier).

No wonder Ken Clanton left Eyexottica and got a job at Cole!:p

[optirep]

As far as rural accouts go it is determined by population! Each rep has a list!

As far a exclusives go! There is none. At this time any independent can join if credentialed!

You can always go to WWW.EYEMEDVISIONCARE.COM to see who is on the plan in your area!