Optiboarders, I'm curious to see if there's any fellow opticians out there that work in ophthalmology and see what your experience was/is in working with discount managed care plans.

Within the past six months, I came into an established ophthalmology practice with an optical shop. My previous place of employment was an optometry clinic that contracted with every discount plan under the sun and I was curious to see there were other opticians in a similar position.

I know the general pros and cons of contracting with discount managed care plans like VSP, Eyemed, etc. I'm curious if there any opticians that would seem to think that it's advantageous to contract with a particular one like VSP. Since our clinic is literally right next door to a hospital, all the physicians, RNs, etc. under employ of the hospital group have VSP and I think we're losing a lot of potential business.

While life at my new optical shop is definitely more streamlined as I'm not spending as much time with insurance verification, fighting with claims departments, etc., my new clinic seems to be sacrificing volume.

Thoughts?