Contact Lenses

Prescribe an Annual Supply of Contact Lenses

By Judith Lee

Banish talk about boxes. Recommend and authorize your patients to buy annual supplies. It locks them in to calling your practice right when they need an annual exam, and makes it more likely they will comply with their recommended wearing schedule.

Annual Supplies Promote Compliance
Patients who purchase an annual supply of lenses are more likely to comply with their recommended wearing schedule, rather than “stretch” their supply by wearing lenses longer.“We call it the ‘pantry effect,’” says Kevin Roe, OD, FAAO, Director of Professional Relations for CIBA VISION. “If you have lenses there, you use them; if you don’t have the lenses, you are less likely to replace them on schedule.”

Dr. Roe points to Management and Business Academy (MBA) statistics that showthe typical contact lens patient does not return for a contact lens check-up in 12 months, as practitioners recommend, but every 18 months.

A 2005 survey by Health Products Research points to a huge potential to move patients into annual supplies: The study shows that 62 percentof patients who wear two-week lenses purchase one or two boxes of replacement lenses, a three-month supply (or less). Just 12 percentof these wearers purchase an annual supply. Thirty-day wearers are more likely to purch-

Types of Wearers

3 mo.

6 mo.

Annual supply

2-Week

62%

24%

12%

30-Day

13%

58%

27%

ase a larger lens supply–58 percentpurchase a six-month supply. But just 27 percent go ahead and purchase an annual supply.

Annual supplies: Better compliance by your patients; better financially for your practice.

Annual Supplies Tie Patients to the Practice
“The biggest risk is that if the patients buy less than an annual supply from the doctor, when they need lenses, they don’t have to get them from the doctor. You don’t want patients to go elsewhere for boxes, because then they will go elsewhere for services,” says Dr. Roe.

Steven Bennett, OD, FAOO, a contact lens specialist in Ann Arbor, MI, succeeds in selling annual supplies to 65 percentof his contact lens patients. However, he understands the pressures that work to counter the sale of annual lens supplies.“We’ve found that many patients who are reluctant to purchase a year’s supply worry about their Rx changing during that time. We tell them we will exchange unopened boxes for free,” Dr. Bennett explains. Sometimes the reluctance is purely financial, even when the practice accepts credit cards for purchases. Dr. Bennett says his staff always mentions the manufacturer’s rebates, which are only available on annual supply purchases. Dr. Roe observes that all manufacturers provide rebates on the purchase of annual supplies, and MBA calls it a “best practice” for the doctor to also kick in a 5percentor 10 percentrebate on annual supplies.

A Few More Boxes = Higher Sales
For the practice, increasing the number of boxes purchased per patient, even by a small amount, can add thousands of dollars to the bottom line. An MBA publication, Best Practices of Contact Lens Management, demonstrates that if a practice with 1,000 buyers of two-week lenses increases average annual purchases from 4 boxes to 4.5 boxes, it realizes a revenue gain of $7,920.

If selling a larger supply motivates patients to return just a few months sooner for a contact lens checkup, that’s an additional revenue benefit. The same MBA publication shows that if patients who normally return every 18 months return every 16 months, the number of annual exams will increase by 12.5 percent.

Teach Your Staff to Sell Annual Supplies
Instruct your staff to banish use of the word “boxes” in your contact lens dispensary, both Drs. Roe and Bennett adivise. “Change the thinking in your office,” says Dr. Roe.”When you hand off the patient to the contact lens assistant, mention the annual supply. When the assistant sits down with the patient, she should say, ‘I seethe doctorhas approved you for anannual supply.’”

Make sure your staff person communicates the convenience for the patient (e.g., “The entire supply can be shipped to you.”) and reiterates the cost savings with amanufacturer’s rebate and practice discount.

Some current lens wearers who have been purchasing boxes may resist the change to an annual supply. Dr. Roe says to think of the change as a process rather than a specific event: “If a current patient prefers to order boxes, don’t hold him hostage – sell boxes. But make sure you’ve planted the seed. You can’t change something if you don’t bring it up.”

Talk the Talk

Use a purposeful conversation with patients when you authorizethem to purchase annual supplies of contact lenses. Explain topatients why it’s the healthiest option for them. Dr. Roe and Dr. Bennett offer examples of possible conversations:

Dr. Roe: Convenience and Eye Health
“I’ve authorized you for an annual supply of replacement lenses, which is convenient for you and best for your eye health.“

Note: Train staff to present rebates and discounts, and reiterate convenience. If a patient resists, staff should say, “That’s fine, but I’d like you to considerthese advantagesof an annual supply.”

Dr. Bennett: Say Annual Supply
Dr. Bennett does not mention boxes, and does not offer a price on boxes. He says to the patient: “[Name of staff person] will help you with your annual supply of lenses.”

Note: The practice does sell boxes if the patient truly can’t afford an annual supply.

Judith Lee is a health-care writer and founder ofCommunication Works Now, an online communications firm. E-mail her atJudith@judithlee.net.

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