1) Patient answering yes to "which is better one or two"
2) Long drawn out explanations about how different each letter looks
3) I can't see anything, but let me take a guess, then they rattle off the 6/6 line
4) asking them to cover one eye to read the chart, then asking them to cover the other eye, they tell u that they can't see anything, when u observe them they have both eyes covered!
More to come
Things I hate about refracting...
doctors who still refract in plus cylinder form, when the lenses are being made in minus cylinder form, then when there's a problem, blame the problem on the base curves...
doctors who give the pt an rx change of -0.75, and not change the add, then tell the pt that they didn't change their near power...of course they can read so much better with their old glasses,m and why is that? because they're +0.75 stronger?
how about this one, My eye exam should be covered by health care, my great grandmothers aunts sister had glaucoma and went blind from it!
Oh, I hate it when I get into a debate with a patient over eye exams being covered by health care! Exams were deinsured in BC over 2 years ago, and I still get people who freak out when I tell them they have to pay privately. Then I get the tirade about the evil government and how it's forcing people to go blind!
We're still covered here in Ontario.
Not sure for how long thou.
Hey mlm, how was the transition of deinsurance???
Having a patient come to you with an Rx change in one eye and finding they changed the add in the one eye .
Bob V.
Eddie G,
The initial transition period was a nightmare. The BC government made their announcement a month before the deinsurance date without warning the BC Association of Optometrists. Next thing we knew, everyone and their dog wanted an eye exam right that minute! I tell you, it says a lot about a person when he or she hasn't had an exam in 5-6 years, but absolutely has to be squeezed into the schedule before the cutoff date. :hammer:
It took about a year to a year and half for most clinics to recover afterwards. My boss reacted by cutting back a lot of staff hours. He was only seeing about 5 patients a day for quite a while. When his optician up and quit, he said he couldn't afford to hire another licensed optician until things picked up so I got one week's worth of training and was thrown into the fire for 6 months. I have to say that I have a much greater appreciation for opticianary after that experience. And I know well enough to leave the eyeglass dispensing to the people who know what they're doing. :D (I'm much more comfortable in the contact lens room...)
Things now are good, even with all the people who feign ignorance about deinsurance. I'm not sure how it is in other provinces, but here 95% of exams are private pay. We can't bill third-party insurance directly, so the patient has to do all the work. The OD gets paid for the exam right away at a rate that's more in line with his or her expertise. Health care will still provide payment for systemic or ocular conditions, but it's only half the full exam fee, so those patients pay the difference.
Sorry to go so off topic with this post. I guess the short answer would have been "short-term pain but definitely long-term gain". ;)
mlm: Why is your boss only seeing 5 patients a day. Do they work that slow in Canada? In the U.S. a "contintuous" doctor would see that many in 75 min. Most would book four every 15 min. No wonder your health care was so booked up.
Note: These times include, BS, refraction, glaucoma check and slit-lamp exam.
Chip
Chip,
The 5-patients-a-day was because of deinsurance. I suppose that's what you get when something that has been free for ages suddenly isn't. So, while he would have loved to see more patients, very few people wanted to pay for the exam. I can't tell you how he's doing now because I don't work for him anymore.
I now work in a clinic with 2 ODs, and 3 full-time and 1 part-time staff. Each doctor sees an average of 10 full exams (half hour) and 4-5 minor exams (15 minutes) each day. It's enough to keep us on our toes, but not so many that patients feel rushed through.
By the way, during that month of insanity, we did schedule full exams every 15 minutes. But with only one OD in one exam room, I still believe that no one got a proper complete eye exam. Then again, you get what you pay for...
....is the correct spelling, not Opticianary. I see even Opticians making that mistake.
Well it's official, in Ontario we are DEINSURANCED as of today's Provincial Budget!!!Originally Posted by mlm
• Most eye exams, physiotherapy and chiropractic services to be no longer covered by health plan.
http://www.canada.com/national/featu...t04/index.html
Looks like we're gonna go thru a year and a half of hell
We are just waiting for the official deinsurance date so that we can squeeze everyone in before then!
Somebody told you that opticians can spell???
Actually, I have more fun correcting the spelling of our best managers (some of whom are NOT opticians, sad to say!) Lord knows many of them can't spell or type or see an error right in front of their noses!
I know this is off-topic, but I wanted to mention that I took an interesting ABO credit class by Ed DeGennaro last weekend about what it takes to be a good manager. I recommend it for anyone remotely considering a leadership position. The class has definitely started me re-thinking my goals in my current work setting. Thanks, Ed!
"The Good Lord gave us mountains so we could learn how to climb". ~ Lonestar
Is there the difference between Routine and medical eye exams performed by an Optometrists in Canada?
In BC, the Medical Services Plan (government health coverage) will provide some coverage for patients who have a systemic medical condition (like diabetes or hypertension), an ocular medical condition (like glaucoma or cataracts), or are on high risk medication that may affect vision and ocular health. It is recognition by the government that some eye exams are medically required, but it is a slippery slope, so to speak. For example, high IOP alone isn't good enough to bill a glaucoma code, but that person should be coming in regularly to have the pressures monitored (and unfortunately pay the exam fee every time).
Routine eye exams are the regular exams that everyone should be coming in for.
Since we're on the subject of refractions I wanted to write/tell you guys this story....I'm still shaking my head. A customer came in to have his glasses adjusted yesterday. He told me a story about what happened to him last summer. He was spending the summer out of state and ripped or lost his final pair of disposable contact lenses. He called his optometrist of 20 years here in town for replacements and was told that because it had been over 2 years (one month over 2 years) they would not supply a new pair of contacts until he was seen. Boy, was he upset...."the Dr. knows my prescription doesn't change" he explained "before my last exam, I hadn't been seen for 7 years and was still using the disposable lenses he had given me with no problem with my vision". Jeesh! What's with these people! And more on that same customer....so he went to a new optometrist in his summer-home-away-from-home-state. According to this patient he answered 1 then 2 then 1 then 2 ect. during the exam. The Dr. said at the end of the exam "well, it's obvious you've taken this exam before, you got it all correct". The customers comment to me was "Yep, I have the exam memorized". I'm still shaking my head over this whole conversation...shaking my head, and smirking...
Oh, no...wasn't it me who just wrote in another thread that my customers are well educated people? I feel like I need to write a disclaimer here....
The above described customer is in no way a representation of the usual well-educated customer who walks through my door.....
hip chic
Hip chick:
He was just in to keep you humble!
This post is not relevant to orig. title, but relevance is closely related to "Deinsurance".... It often strikes my fancy to see the young ladies who have their nails done every two weeks at a cost of about $25 per session or a yearly budget of $600. Then there is the hairstyling, pedicures, facials, etc., to ensure their beauty at about $2000 per year combined. Then there are the guys who throw more into electronic gadgets, cars, sports, booze, etc., so they can be another 'cool dude' , which I estimate (based on my own estimated expenses) to be $1800 per year.
MY POINT IS.....
Stop btchin' about the cost of an eye exam/contact lens eval. and supplies and or eyewear, because it is much cheaper than any one of the scenarios forementioned.... Without good vision, and healthy eyes, whats the point to having any of those things. PRIORITIES, PRIORITIES, PRIORITIES!!!:hammer:
Had to toss my 'sense' in.
:cheers:
Cowboy
Last edited by Cowboy; 05-21-2004 at 01:18 PM.
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