Which optical plan to axe

**fjpod** · 10-20-2005, 10:09 PM

I am not advocating that anyone drop any plan, but which optical plan do you find is the most difficult to work with?:hammer:

**Jacqui** · 10-21-2005, 06:50 AM

You need to include "All the above" in your survey

**Happylady** · 10-21-2005, 08:06 AM

We dropped Spectra for glasses. We still take it for contacts and exams. We just had too much trouble with the Spectra lab. Their frame selection was horrible and when patients wanted to choose frames from my store we weren't allowed to supply them.

Patients routinely waited 2 weeks for their glasses and if Spectra was supplying a frame that wasn't theirs it was even longer. The quality was not good, either.

Nothing like waiting over 2 weeks for a pair of glasses and when they come in they are off and we have to redo them.

**ziggy** · 10-21-2005, 08:26 AM

I agree with Jac, get rid of them all. We've done just that and every thing is going great! Offer a "discount" to any of the plans and most folks will stay with you.

**shellrob** · 10-21-2005, 01:12 PM

Happylady....I'm with you on Spectera, I hate it too, but just to let you know...we supply all of the frames if a patient chooses outside the plan. Crown will try to tell you that you can't do that, but it's not true. You send them the order and the wholesale and that's that. The thing that bugs me is having to send it to their lab when a couple of the chains around here that take Spectera are allowed to make in house? We've never gotten a straight answer from Spectera on why that is.

**drk** · 10-21-2005, 01:39 PM

Eyemed, to stop the vertical integration Borg...muhahahaha!

**Happylady** · 10-21-2005, 02:09 PM

Originally Posted by shellrob

Happylady....I'm with you on Spectera, I hate it too, but just to let you know...we supply all of the frames if a patient chooses outside the plan. Crown will try to tell you that you can't do that, but it's not true. You send them the order and the wholesale and that's that. The thing that bugs me is having to send it to their lab when a couple of the chains around here that take Spectera are allowed to make in house? We've never gotten a straight answer from Spectera on why that is.

We could have supplied the frames? We were told we couldn't. In fact one patient had to come in and pick out another frame when Spectra couldn't get it. It took them close to 2 weeks to let us know they couldn't supply it, too.

**shellrob** · 10-21-2005, 02:22 PM

Now, there are a couple of frame lines Crown cannot get so you have to send them those frames but we end up sending everything else too cause ythe frames they provide are needless to say....junk.

Yea and you're right, they do take their time calling to let you know stuff like that. I don't know what their deal is.

**slaboff** · 10-21-2005, 02:51 PM

I picked vsp because they discriminate against opticians. It is easy to use though.

**walleye** · 10-23-2005, 06:34 PM

I agree with shellrob-if we supply the frame we put the wholesale cost on the order form. Spectera reimburses up to $50.00 wholesale for any frame you supply on most of their plans. They will send you a separate check for the reinbursement of the frame cost-maddening! And another check for the services. We try to have them pick a Spectera frame(they updated ours about 6 months ago) and about one half are not bad. With the updating of 50 frames they told us to just keep the ones we took off the board!! United Health Care which owns Spectera is making a big push into the Philadelphia area and we have seen alot more of their patients this past year. Johnson&Johnson employees are in their plan!!