What is the range of costs for a basic exam (optometry) in your area?
We are at $65 and the range seems $50-$75 for the most part.
I am wondering what the impact on sales would be if we dropped the price of the exam (with the purchase of glasses)....
Any experience with that?
In Europe there was allways a free exam that went along with glasses.
New patients $150 and repeat patients $135. People without insurance get a 20% discount so no one actually pays that much! It includes dilation.
We charge $155 for a comprehensive exam or $50 just for a refraction.
Ours is a comprehensive; VFE, dilation, doc typically spends 50 minutes with each patient. Cost 129.00, seniors receive a discounted price of 109.00. I've worked at a 99.00 exam with 1 pair of glasses and 1 set of contacts. I feel that most of our patients appreciate the care they receive here and if we are not billing insurance I can provide them with a financial incentive if they purchase glasses from us without having to give away the store and or our services. I would be careful about undervaluing the services that you provide your patients with. Our industry has a long history of providing the general public with free adjustments, nose pads, consultations etc... just look at where it has gotten us.
I'm interested to know what % of patients opt for the $50 option.Originally Posted by 9520g
Medicare says: 92004: $144.65, and 92014: $120.31 for our locality. Refraction, as always, has no value, and no government assigned fee. If you're not charging fees inline with government standards, are you (or your doctors/practice owners/administrators) bothering to ask why? I certainly wouldn't go to any office that advertised cheap healthcare for the sake of being cheap. Most consumers are savvy enough to understand that when prices are dropped, corners are cut. Which corners are you willing to cut for your patient's eye health care?
+1 to Uilleann.
We charge $150 for comprehensive with refraction and dilation for returning patients, new patients are $180. In our community, our office is where the patients go who have diabetes, glaucoma, etc and want more than the two local cheaper chain choices offer as far as the ability to do more medically oriented testing.
Another question would be: What are all the MD's in your immediate area charging for the same codes? Same code = same service. Same service = same reimbursement (according to CMS anyway). If you're so dramatically undercharging, WHY are you doing so? If you're billing any services out of your door as well, you're almost as likely to flag an audit with rampant discounts as you are with over billing. Tread softly.
Very small percentage, i would say maybe 5 or 6 the whole year. my Dr. is very thorough and takes a lot of time with each patient. Most of them appreciate that because they are not getting rushed to get the next person in the chair.
Not true in the UK.
$89 to $169 seems to be the range around here.
Depends on insurance and copay vs cash pay, but $70-90 is pretty common in our office. There's an occasional below break-even or sometimes a couple of break-evens, and also the cash pay $165, which we offer a cash pay discount on sometimes, but the doc is happy and I get my paycheck.
In Australia, all citizens and permanent residents are eligible for a comprehensive eye examination every 2nd year through our medicare system. Most optometrists bulk bill the exam with some charging for OCT etc. If an optometrist chooses not to bulk bill his services, there is a cap on the the fee that can be charged.
Here in Seattle a rountine exam runs around $250, without a CL Fit. You can get one from around $180 if bargain a bit, and get a same day payment discount. One OD does charge $125, but has no patients. I don't recommend lowering your exam fee. If patients aren't coming in there is usually another reason for it.
Do you find that MDs and ODs are charging similar rates up there? Sounds about right to me.
As an interesting aside, I asked at the vet specialty eye clinic the other day when in with one of our chocolate labs for a dermatology follow-up (they're in the same building..an extremely nice building mind you), just off the cuff what a preliminary exam cost there for a dog like ours. Without blinking an eye, I was told that the basic comprehensive exam starts at $375, and goes up from there depending on what they find.
For a dog.
Granted, she's a very cute dog, but still...a dog.
Why on EARTH would you undervalue your HUMAN patients so much to charge such ridiculously low rates for your medical exam expertise and time? Do you not have massive school debt to pay back? No overhead for your lane(s) and dispensary? No need to innovate with up to date equipment, frames, lens offerings? No need to pay your staff appropriately?
Why???
Last edited by Uilleann; 09-20-2013 at 06:32 PM.
Slightly less for MDs, they see more patients per hour, and get more medical.
I have asked that same question myself...
So the MDs charge less for the same code/work level/complexity? That's a different shift than what we see here. Interesting.
Look at where our industry has got us. Free this and free that. People have no loyalty. It's whoever is cheaper or who is their provide bookr. Insurance companies now tell us what we can charge and if they will let us provide services to their members. Opticians are weak. We never banded together we fought each other. The optometrists did it right . I'm glad to be toward the end of my career.
the big chains, corporations and web players have capitalized on the fact that the "eye exam" has been marketed as a unique service from the hardware, the glasses.
Optometrists have allowed this to happen - and have become more medical-like both in training and in practice.
The natural progression would be for opticians to refract.
If and when that happens on a wide scale in North America, or even just in my area, I think these "medical-oriented" eye-exam-only optometrists will be in for a rude awakening. Just my humble.
Here in the rust belt, the average fee is $55-70, and we charge $60.00. Our main office is booked into November, and a new lane will be operating in 2 weeks. Out doctors spend at least 1/2 hr. w/each pt. and almost all are dilated. Most of our ODs have been with us at least 10 years, and some more than 15. They have no overhead, and all seem to be very happy with their income.
An MD down the road charges $180 for a basic exam $230 for contacts, and he seems to be just as busy.
just to throw a wrench into this conversation but on the same pipeline, our office has now started charging a seperate fee for "refraction" on top of the eye exam fee, anyone have any experience with this? good or bad?
"what i need is a strong drink and a peer group." ... Douglas Adams - Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy
OOPS - wrong thread faux pas
"our office has now started charging a seperate fee for "refraction" on top of the eye exam fee"
That has been our standard procedure for about 20 years. We explain that the refraction is not a medical procedure and needs to be paid seperately from the medical procedure. Keep in mind, this is "assuming" the patient came in for a medically necessary eye exam. It is typical for out Medicare, Blue Cross, etc. patients to pay for the refracation and bill the exam to the insurance compant.
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