Efficieny

[iD]

anybody ever been to an office where just the operation of which something is done is backwards and time consuming?

I think for the most part everyone has come across where you input your order into a EHR software then again on a website(vison web, eyefinity, eyemed, etc...) to place the order.

[drk]

That is a pain.

[DanLiv]

Personally, I embrace that particular inefficiency.
1) To transmit directly you have to set up your product list like the transmitting software does, i.e. lens/material/AR, and have it divided into tiers matching the receiver's classifications. I do not do that. I structure my private product lists as I believe they are best for me, my staff, my customers. And that does not translate to traditional insurance or lab product list structures.
2) I don't trust the EHRs to transmit my date faithfully, and without me able to double-check what's transmitted. Many times my lab has received incomplete information from VSP, Eyemed, and Visionweb, even DVI Rx Wizard (though much rarer, and it could have been lab data entry's fault just not reading all the transmitted data). Your EHR's system of transmitting the data is equally fallibly programmed, and then sends it to the fallible VSP, Eyemed, Visionweb, et al., and you now have an exponentially error-prone system.

What is inefficient to me is laboring to structure your product list to match the VCP's or lab's, or spending time customizing product mapping to translate your product structure to the receiver's structure. And then each receiver is different. VSP, Eyemed, and Spectera's progressive and ARs tiers are all different, to set up direct interface you have to map each individually. For private orders if you order from multiple labs each codes/names their lenses differently so again no universal translation. Sure you can save some work and thought later by making the huge setup commitment early, but then you also have to re-map as various sources alter their structures, and god forbid a software update from ANY of the players involved utterly breaks the translation.

Next inefficiency, routinely ordering from multiple labs. I don't think it's the norm, but I know enough opticians who do it that it must be a thing. I don't mean the occasional one-off specialty jobs of proprietary like Maui Jim, those are understandable inefficiencies that are worth the trouble. With the exception of maybe a rabid authentic Maui Jim or Oakley business, if less than 90+% of your jobs are coming from a single lab, that's inefficient. I understand the reasons, often one lab for private another for VCP, or sourcing different products from different labs to get best pricing. We counsel our customers on the inefficiency and potential problems of fracturing their eye care, or price-shopping for the best deals on eyewear of contacts. Yet some of us do the exact same thing when shopping labs. How are we immune to the same inefficiency and potential problems our customers face? I think mostly it is just ignorance of the hypocrisy, but I'm sure it's also arrogance in believing as professional opticians we are not prone to the same fallacy as out customers. Find one lab that does everything, or as much as possible, you want done, make sure it is one that prides itself on extraordinary service and quality and does not entice you with the "just as good as the others guys but half the price!" pitch, cultivate a great relationship with them, become personally familiar with their rep and customer service staff, pay their not-the-cheapest prices, and enjoy an ease of existence that comes from knowing your lab with give you anything because you give them everything. Shouldn't we be loyal customers to our labs in the same way we want our customers to be to us?

Sorry. That became more... passionate than it started out.

[kittyeyes]

If there was a more convcincing argument to dump managed care-I'd like to read it.
2015 we dumped them all and never looked back

[CME4SPECS]

if there was a more convcincing argument to dump managed care-i'd like to read it.
2015 we dumped them all and never looked back

plus one!

[Elvis Is Alive]

Same here. Don't want to ever go back to accepting vision plans.

I remember having to triple enter info for some insurances at a previous job: 1. Enter a claim thru provider portal. 2. Enter job in VisionWeb. 3. Enter job into practice internal system (Compulink, which I used to call Compustink)