New This Week
Treating Ocular Allergies: A Key Practice-Builder
Art Epstein, OD, FAAO, chief medical editor of Optometric Physician, advises that you can make treating ocular allergies a practice-builder if you establish and reinforce your therapeutic authority. Learn to identify allergies when they occur, convey to the patient your authority in treating their condition, then write an Rx to treat it. Later, when the patient’s symptoms are relieved, your name on the bottle speaks volumes. Part II of a special ROB video series: “Opportunities in Medical Optometry.”
>>READ MORE>>
Contact Lenses
Tap Opportunity: Daily Replacement Lenses for Astigmatic Patients
By Jason Miller, OD, MBA
Advances in daily replacement toric lenses allow you to improve the vision of contact lens wearers with even small amounts of astigmatism. >>READ MORE>>
Practice Management
Time Management Booster:
Keeping an Optometric Practice in the Family
By Cheryl G. Murphy, OD
This second installment in a series on multi-generational practices explores the gains in time and schedule flexibility from keeping the business in the family. >>READ MORE>>
Billing & Coding
Are You Running a Modern Billing Department?
If Not, Here’s How
By John W. McCormack, OD, and Shane Shepherd
Use technology and third-party services to make insurance processing more efficient.
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ROB Fast Fact
Are Eyeglasses More Fashionable Now than Five Years Ago?
Most eyeglasses wearers (66.9 percent) recognize that eyeglasses are more fashionable now than they were five years ago. Only one-seventh of those who currently wear eyeglasses believe that eyeglasses are not more fashionable now than they were five years ago, according to The Vision Council VisionWatch Fashion vs. Function Eyewear Report. When compared to other eyeglasses wearers, women, younger Americans, eyeglasses wearers from higher income homes and eyeglass wearers who also use contact lenses were all relatively more likely to believe that eyeglasses are more fashionable now than they were five years ago.
Click HERE to read more from Review of Optometric Business professional editors Carole Burns, OD, FCOVD, and Mark Wright, OD, FCOVD, on making the most of the role of eyeglasses as fashion accessory.
In Brief
2012 ECP Compensation Study Now Available
Jobson Optical Research and Local Eye Site have released the 2012 ECP Compensation Study. The report provides eyecare professionals with average and median compensation for professional and staff titles, enabling benchmarking of compensation policies against national and regional variances. >>READ MORE>>
Vision Loans Program Receives Additional $10 Million in Funding from Essilor and VSP Vision Care
Essilor of America, Inc., and VSP Vision Care announced that they each have committed an additional $5 million in funding to the Vision Loans Program, which supports independent eyecare professionals by providing loans to optometrists looking to finance first-time practice purchases, partnership buy-ins and refinancing options. >>READ MORE>>
ROB Poll Results
Readers Cite the Most Common Cause of Patient Bottlenecks: Late Patients
Asked what most often causes patient bottlenecks in their office, 74 percent of readers said patients running late for appointments was the most common cause. Twenty-two percent cited under-staffing such as not having enough staff to efficiently register and pre-test patients. Four percent blamed errors, miscalculations or poor planning by staff of patient appointment timing.
