I'm looking for core product to replace my Altair lines (Men: JOE, Joseph Abboud, and Tommy Bahama - Women: Sigrid Olsen and Tommy). The men's frames have been selling quite well for me, but with VSP releasing eyeconic this week, I'm hoping to rid my office of all Marchon/Altair lines.
Hoping to retail the frames for same price point and keep wholesale price under what I'm currently paying for Altair frames.
ANY IDEAS???
Thanks in advance!
Daniel
Danielh you may want to try ClearVision (COLE HAAN , BCBG , OP & others ) good luck :)
You never should have invited/allowed Altair into your office in the first place. Good luck trying to send the frames back to VSP.
Do you have any suggestions?Originally Posted by David_Garza
For the men I would go with Carrera from Safilo; Timex and Republica from Kenmark. You can replace the Sigrid Olsen stuff with the Kensie line from Kenmark. Take a look at the reflections line from iDeal.
Daniel,
Are your Altair frames consignment? I'd be more concerned about the Marchon that you paid for.
Harry
Yes, Altair are consignment. Micheal Kors is all I have from Marchon, and gonna hold onto them for now (don't have many).
So is one of the requirements that the manufacturers and brands not be offered online? Good luck there. When you do select one, since they will likely be offered online, ask them and those vendors marketing them virtually how you will be reimbursed when those sales occur.
Hey race, while you're here tell us how wonderful it's gonna be with ECCA added to the list of approved providers for VSP. ( Sending them to location that Davis owns.)
There are plenty of lines you can buy that are not sold online.
DragonlensmanWV N.A.O.L.
"There is nothing patriotic about hating your government or pretending you can hate your government but love your country."
Luck? No need for luck. PM me, and I'll put you in touch w/my boss. He's been unbranded for years, and even consults to other OD's on how to do it. Oh, and he takes VSP, gets reimbursed w/no problems, and doesn't have an Altair in his office.
(He claims to save quite a bit of money doing it, which doesn't surprise me. He's so cheap that he invented copper wire fighting over a penny!)
I'd be happy to. How about you lead off and tell us in this or another thread or me directly via PM if you wish, what you know of the program and how it is going to work. Please share your concerns. I'll do my best. Keep in mind how wonderful "it" is going to be is up to you not VSP.
In the end, VSP directs patients to private practice not Costco and not the Affiliates such as ECCA locations. VSP can't direct what they don't have and if employers demanding a retail option don't give them an opportunity to put coverage on their employees, which is what is happening in the market, then I'd love to hear how YOU plan on capturing those employees and directing them to your office vs retail which is where the other providers point them. Keep in mind if VSP doesn't have them, they are most certainly NOT going to be directed to Private ECP's. I'll keep in mind some of this may be moot if you're not on the VSP Panel or don't qualify.
With the "choice" to visit your office or an affiliate now having more visibility, if the money/costs are equal, where would consumers rather shop is NOT the responisbility of VSP, but in the hands of each of us as independents. Gotta look in the mirror on this one everyone. You can't blame employers or customers for forcing providers to offer a retail choice. It's clearn none of you (or me) like being TOLD what to do, so why is that so hard to believe customers are demanding a choice too? It's up to the INDEPENDENTS to create the value that when the money is equal, consumers will choose them vs retail. Again, you can't blame anyone else for them not selecting you. Are you a perpetual victim or are you going to take responsibility for insuring your own future? Are you going to go the way of Blockbuster and now Borders Books? What are YOU Doing to prevent that?
I look forward to your discussion and hopefully a civil one at that.
Last edited by racethe1320; 07-22-2011 at 08:06 AM.
I'd love to chat with him directly, but not sure that's my place. He likely won't care what another office does, especially if he's consulting his ways with others. I'm sure he does enjoy VSP. They pay quite timely and are the easy to work with. I will still say good luck as it's his course that is guiding your practice not yours.
I think 24/7's comments are based upon the difference between what VSP says it's for and what they actually do being two different things.
"not for profit" -oops!
"By Doctors for Doctors, no others" - oops!
DragonlensmanWV N.A.O.L.
"There is nothing patriotic about hating your government or pretending you can hate your government but love your country."
Two different things? Really? Please enlighten me on who is cashing in on profits they make across the lines of businesses they have? Are millions rolling into the bank accounts of investors or employees? How are they reinvesting in their own business(s)? By doing so, who is benefiting? Let's move beyond the broad sarcasm here as I'm interested in the specifics you have that back up your beliefs. I'd love to hear the facts of what you know vs what you believe to know. Show me their public investors or their private owners. Find me a list please.
Sounds like you have a pretty pointed opinion about how the Costo and their affiliate program are NOT helping their panel members. Please share with us your understanding of the program and the reasoning for it. Sarcasm aside too, and let's see what that looks like. It's easy to throw a few jabs online. Are you open to a meaningful discussion on the matter? Same offer to discuss their online venture. Feel free to create new threads."By Doctors for Doctors, no others" - oops!
Last edited by racethe1320; 07-22-2011 at 08:36 AM.
Are you denying that non OD owned businesses are now treated as providers? After all, I expect you to know every single thing that goes on in every single instance that VSP abrogates their publicly stated mission. Do you indeed have such knowledge? You seem to, as you suspect no one else has any knowledge whatsoever about VSP.
So, please, inform us in great detail ALL the goings on concerning ECCA and Costco. G'head.
DragonlensmanWV N.A.O.L.
"There is nothing patriotic about hating your government or pretending you can hate your government but love your country."
Their affiliate program gives companies the "Choice" to select VSP as their vision plan and "choice" to include Costco or ECCA as an option in addition to private practice for their employees to visit. Without that option, most employers today are telling VSP not to even bother bidding on their contracts. Without bidding, retail wins; period. You'll quickly see nearly 50% of those employees go to retail with more and more doing so every year. Would you prefer that or would you prefer to have a shot at getting the employee to walk in your door? Remember, VSP is still directing patients to private practice, they are not directing them to Costco or ECCA locations. VSP is also quite transparent about showing the figures and data that while Costco has been an option, that many employers are choosing NOT to select them as an option, but also that many of the employees of the companies who select them as an option, are still electing to visit private practice.
If you think life without VSP having an option of directing these people to private practice is a viable option, then perhaps you would like to look at other markets where VSP is NOT present and digest the statistics on how well non private practice ECP's are doing vs retail in those countries. I think Chris may be willing to share those statistics with you. I can, but perhaps you would prefer another source. Come back to me with your comfort level then. Hint, hint....in the past few years Private Practitioners are going by the wayside as fast as Blockbusters and Borders Books. Good luck to you if you choose to live in Europe or Australia and open a practice. Hang on though as the retail giants over there will be at your doorstep before long. It's just a matter of when and only those preparing for it will be around. What are you doing to prepare for it?
Nice try, I shared a little of the above to get you thinking, now back to MY questions to YOU. ( See my previous post) where I said it's you're turn. Share with us your beliefs on the matter and please don't deflect back to me to do the talking. I'm truly interested in what you believe to know because contrary to what you inferred, I do know that others have insight on the goings on at VSP, but the difference and irony is I'd like to hear what they believe followed by facts they provide, not me.So, please, inform us in great detail ALL the goings on concerning ECCA and Costco. G'head.
I'm most interested in your thoughts on how the evolving model in the marketplace is seen and how it's influence at VSP is causing a belief among the group here that they somehow are wavering from their mission of supporting private practice OD's. I agree the means by which they are having to do it are evolving, but then the rules of life is you change or die, but their mission is still the same.
Looks to me like they are getting pretty creative and aggressive at fighting off the retail giants out there. Again, what are you doing to do that? Who ELSE in this market is working as hard as VSP to protect you from them? Anyone? Heck, even back to my very first post in this thread, are there ANY OTHER online sites with a clear direction in place to benefit the private ECP when consumers purchase online? WHO? HOW? I'm curious. Your turn, I've opened a lot of talking points for you to chime in on. G'head.
Last edited by racethe1320; 07-22-2011 at 11:56 AM.
Well, since it's his office, he should be guiding the practice. Or were you thinking it should be VSP?
Race,
I have spoken with my Altair and Marchon reps, both had the same story that eyeconic.com is an attempt to bring online shoppers back into my office. My current VSP patients seem to be the only ones who never walk with a script because they realize they have an allowance that can only be used in VSP provider's offices (i.e. not online, not ecca, etc).
While VSP is broadcasting that online eyewear sales have skyrocketed over the past few years, I would be interested to see statistics on what percentage of VSP members are purchasing online. I would be willing to bet that number is very low. Both reps have also mentioned that I will be getting reimbursed a dispensing fee for every patient who is referred back to my office following their online purchase. But when I ask for specifics, they have both stumbled and said they would get back with me with specifics.....neither have.
And what about contact sales through eyeconic? VSP is essentially fixing our contact lens prices at the price for which they are selling them. VSP seems to be directly competing with their customers....I'm struggling to see how this will be good for optometry long term.
It's good the same way that MyOnlineOptical is good...for the site owners.
Check with your independent lab for great pricing on lens/frame packages. You should be plesantly surprised.
Racethe1320 - You've brought up some interesting points. Thanks for spending the time to share those. I was looking for this thread earlier this morning, but couldn't remember the title, so I'm happy it was bumped.
Anyway, this came from the TX O.D. Assoc. prez this morning. I thought he brought up some good points, that you may have insight to:
-----------------------------------------------
Our Relationship with VSPKevin Katz, OD, MS
The TOA board met with VSP representatives at our board meeting to try and answer some questions about our relationship with them.
Two days after the meeting VSP announced that, in addition to Costco, Eyemasters will now be a VSP affiliate provider. They somehow failed to mention that at our meeting and I believe that is a commentary on the relationship.
We wanted to know why VSP wants us to identify diabetic and medical patients and what their endgame is in this regard. We wanted to know why our reimbursements keep going down while the company seems to be very profitable and acquiring other companies. We wanted to know how the VSP board sees the future of VSP vision care by independent doctors of optometry and how the board is constituted. We wanted to know if VSP is really committed to the independent OD.
We heard a lot of rhetoric that any one of you could have parroted. It was all about reducing costs to cover more lives and get you more patients. It was all about identifying medical patients so that they can offer more value to employers. It was all about being competitive.
We were hoping to have some common ground so that we could work together. Seems to me that VSP is just a business intent on maximizing their profits. Nothing wrong with that, except many of us were under the misconception that there was a partnership and relationship of trust built over the years.
I guess the world has changed and it doesn't make me feel warm and fuzzy.
Haha! Irony of ironies......
Tell the TOA President that's how most ODs felt when the AOA decided to pass Board Certification without getting a majority opinion on the matter.....I'm not a VSP supporter, BUT just like VSP is looking out for their own self interest, so too is the AOA looking for what suits them the best rather than their members.
I'm not sure if there is a direct relationship there to be compared. TOA and AOA are two seperate entities.
There is when 100% of the delagates in the TOA voted for it.
Ah, didn't know that.
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