Buy your bad donkey glasses at Trufocal.com

Sphere powers are from +6 to -11, cyl up to -3.50, any axis, up to 3 p.d. prism horizontal and vertical per lens, add up to +3.00, and p.d. from 50 to 70 mm.

Patients can upload a scan of their Rx to the TruFocal folks. That is awesome! (My bank has been accepting scans of checks for deposits since 2006. How come contact lens retailers aren’t doing this?!?!)

As soon as I have a spare $900 I’ll have to get me a pair.

(H/T to Maino’s Memos)

This patient from Dr. Bazan’s office shares her experience.

It really does help to see the doctor to get the best contacts for your eyes. Not only contacts, but info about contact lens solutions. I can’t tell you how many people love ClearCare yet they had never heard of it before I explained it.

I wish people would value the doctor.

BUT, should the law should punish people who buy contacts without a real prescription?

The libertarian in me says no. I should be able to buy antibiotics at the pharmacy without a prescription if I want. The only thing bringing some people in for an eye exam is getting that piece of paper, but it turns out some people don’t even bother with the Rx paper and just game the mail-order system.

The solution? Teach people to value the doctor. We can foster that value every time the patient has an evaluation by explaining how glad we are that they came in. We must be sure to educate how great it is that they had an eye exam whenever:

1. their Rx changes
2. we change their contacts to a better lens for comfort and eye health
3. we recommend a better, more compatible, care system for their eyes and contact lenses
4. we educate them on the latest and greatest options for them, even if they don’t want or require a change in lens or care system
5. they have a medical condition related to their eyes

And I don’t hold the prescription over their heads. The Utah law is that I make the expiration date for two years if their eyes are healthy; however, I frequently mention that it is best to have a yearly eye exam, especially if they note even a subtle change in their vision.

It’s really interesting to see what search terms get people to my site. I think it would be even more interesting to analyze and respond to questions implied by people’s search keywords. As a public service, I will now respond to actual search terms and attempt to answer any implied questions. Seriously, I am not making these up. It is not a comprehensive list, but these particular ones make good blogging fodder.

1. “career switch from optometry” – I hear ya’, brother, but do you really want to throw away four extra years of school and over $150K? Is optometry really that bad?
2. “do optometrists make lots of money?” – Yes, they put a question mark in their search. No, we don’t is the short answer, but more on specifics down the list.
3. “why become an optometrist” – Only because you love it, but that begs the question: How do you know if you would love it unless you already became an optometrist?
4. “easiest optometry school to get into” – Okay, first of all, this person hopefully won’t get into optometry school, but I think it’s safe to say that the answer to the quesiton is Pacific University because, hey, they took me.
5. “walmart optometrist average salaries” – There are only a few optometrists in the country actually employed by Walmart. In many states that scenario is illegal (stupid government interference.) Walmart optometrists working on a contracted lease only make what they get from exam fees, so it’s not a salary because you aren’t guaranteed an income. The Optometric Business Academy publishes a yearly survey of Walmart and Sam’s Club affiliated optometrists and the median gross fee income is: $161K for 2007 and $167,473 for 2008. Keep in mind your net will be at least 20% less.
6. “optometry debt” – I don’t have any statistics, but most of my class was around $100-150K and that was 2003. Now a days it’s becoming debatable whether the loan debt is worth your potential income. The actual numbers for indebtedness for 2005 averaged for all schools is $125685 (from ASCO under data and surveys).
7. “AOA optometry dues too high” – Yes, I agree. Next question.
8. “average number of new patients seen for start up optometric practice” – Um, try zero.
9. “how to become an optometrist” – First, get good grades in high school. Then get good grades at college (state universities are just fine). Schmooze influential faculty members your first two years of college to get a good recommendation letter for your optometry school application. Take the OAT and get a good score. Then apply for optometry school your third year of college. Get an interview and do really well. Get accepted to optometry school. Take out $150K in student loans. Get good grades in optometry school. Take the NBEO and pass all sections. Graduate. Get a state license when your NBEO passing scores are released. Do temp work from May to July of your graduation year (I made frozen dinners). Start practicing around July of your graduation year. Wow, you know, for all the same work you could have entered a career field that pays better or entered a field that pays just as much but requires less time and loan money.
10. “what should you know about optometry” – well, for starters see the previous question. You should also know that you are paid according to how many exams you do. You can only do so many exams, and people will only be willing to pay so much for an exam, so already you are limiting yourself. If you want to make some real money you need to consider a career field that allows you to sell an infinite amount of widgets to anyone, anywhere in the world.
11. “How to make optometrist buy from you.” – As I’ve said before, that shouldn’t be too hard. He or she chose to became an optometrist so they are easier to fool.
12. “what pays better, a pharmacist or optometrist” – They pay the same, but the pharmacist doesn’t have $150K in student loan debt. People point out that pharmacists have to work late hours and weekends, but optometry is quickly heading in that direction.
13. “when did eye exams become so expensive?” – Ever since the optometrist hired a practice consultant. (Again, what is the deal with putting a question mark in a web search?)
14. “optometry school worth it” – Only if you want to be an optometrist. A better question would be which optometry school makes it the most worth it.
15. “how much school does an optomitrist have” – Bad spelling aside, the short answer is eight years post high school.
16. “laws against 1800 contacts” – Yah, there should be a law that says someone else can’t take my business away from me without my permission. The government needs to fix all my problems. Where’s my binky?
17. “are prompt pay discounts for medical exams legal” – The previous billing expert I listened to said yes. The one before him said up to a reasonable amount like 10%. The true answer should be I should be able to charge whatever I want to whoever I want, but thanks to the government and insurance contracts that is not possible.
18. “what to take in high school to become an optometrist?” – Take whatever the heck you want. Who cares about high school? College is the new high school. By the way, why take the extra effort to type in a question mark in a search box?
19. “what retinoscope looks like” – Shh! It’s a secret.
20. “optometrist jokes” – I would refer you to some excellent, witty cartoons sketched on a mouse pad by a charming optometrist.

Well, that concludes the first edition of Answers to Your Search Questions. I’ll release more later, so stay tuned.

Some outfit called Commission Junction handles the details for 1-800′s referral program, and I got this email from them today:

You are receiving this email because we are concerned that your Commission Junction publisher account has not generated any valid commissions (from payable transactions) recently. We encourage you to begin earning commissions as quickly as possible. Otherwise, your publisher account is at risk of deactivation due to dormancy…

So for the one guy who started Link Gate, let me assure you that no one cares that I link to 1-800 or Wal-Mart since apparently no one follows the links anyway.

In a previous post I linked to a YouTube snippet of the CEO of 1-800 CONTACTS, Jonathan Coon, giving a speech to Wal-Mart optometrists. Posting the entire video from the DVD would take too much bandwidth, but I managed to scrape the audio to share with you. So it’s not really my podcast, but it is a step in the right direction.

Again, if I get a legal letter from 1-800 or Wal-Mart demanding that I remove the content, I will of course comply; however, they did send this DVD to every Wal-Mart optometrist, and some of those optometrists also work in private practice settings. Also, this presentation defends 1-800 CONTACTS and Wal-Mart’s partnership better than anything I’ve heard. So, I think you will agree that every optometrist who is interested should listen to this talk (or watch it if you can borrow it from your nearest Wal-Mart Vision Center).

Enjoy. (Click the player below or download manually or subscribe to it in iTunes or subscribe to Optoblog’s site feed or podcast feed to automatically get it in your favorite podcatcher.)

…optometrist Wiley Curtis, of Arlington, Texas, represented the AOA’s position, tempered by his own experience. “Over the course of this year, I have tracked 18 contact lens orders placed with 1-800 Contacts,” he says. “I am saddened to report that the first 17 orders were all filled by the company without any verification contact with my office, in apparent violation of the FCLCA.”

After the hearing, 1-800 Contacts looked into this accusation. “Our records from the last 12 months to this doctor’s office show 192 phone calls, three faxes and eight total hours on the phone with his staff,” says Kevin McCallum, 1-800 Contacts’ senior vice president of marketing and operations. “We received 117 orders from this doctor’s patients. All 117 orders received a successful verification request.”

This actually happened while the congress was hearing testimony about the FCLCA. Apparent AOA stooge, Dr. Curtis, alleged that 1800Contacts broke the law, so the 1-800Contacts team stayed up all night to research, and the next day at the hearings they provided evidence to the contrary.

I only first heard about this event when I listened to Jonathan C. Coon, CEO of 1-800 CONTACTS, speak to all the Wal-Mart Optometrists on April 27th at our all-travel-and-expenses-paid meeting in Nashville, TN. He had given pretty much the same speech on a DVD sent to all Wal-Mart vision centers earlier this year after the announcement of Wal-Mart and 1-800′s alliance. Here is a significant clip. Please watch.

I wish everyone could see the entire half hour speech, but the above video clip combined with the aove AOA-is-stupid story show why optometrists blindly dislike 1-800 Contacts. I hated 1-800 blindly because that is what the organized optometrist establishment taught me to do. After learning the facts, there is no reason for any optometrist to dislike 1-800, unless that optometrist also hates all their other competitors. I don’t because I’m friends with most of the other optometrists in town and 1-800 is making my life easier now.

For these reasons, I would like to officially and publicly retract the negative comments I made about 1-800 Contacts in this previous post. It was a knee jerk response conditioned by organized optometry, for which I am ashamed.

I admire Mr. Coon and his core team for everything they’ve done to become a very successful business. I think that private practice optometrists, like the above Dr. Curtis, are just jealous. Incidentally, Mr. Coon in his speech said that after presenting the facts about Dr. Curtis’s patient orders to 1-800 Contacts, 1-800 asked him and the AOA to stop making wrongful [slanderous, defaming] accusations or privide their evidence. He has yet to bring evidence or retract his statements.

Don’t be blinded, everybody. Go to your nearest Wal-Mart Vision Center and ask to watch the 1-800 Contacts DVD.

And then today, 1800Contacts had a customer on the phone whose prescription expired, so they called my Wal-Mart vision center, and the customer was patched through to talk to an optician. The patient scheduled an exam for Saturday. How sweet is that?!!

On my VisionHealth EyeCare practice website, he saw that I linked to Wal-Mart.com’s contact lens sales section. He (mistakenly) believes this to be in violation of Utah law and (if he can be believed) filed a complaint to the board.

Let me quote the allegation that “John Smith” made:

In the state of Utah, optometrists are strictly prohibited from marketing or advertising for the mercantile establishment. This includes websites.

Now, I don’t know how they do things in Virginia, Ru-I mean “John Smith,” but here in Utah we have no such rule. I could see such crazy rules coming out of communist states like California or even psychotic-optometry-rule states like Nevada, but not in a freedom-loving, gun-and-God-clinging state.

Another commenter decided to sell us on 1800optometrist, which got me to thinking that hey, I’m providing those links to Wal-Mart.com for free. Why not annoy R-I mean “John Smith” even more and potentially make some cash at the same time by linking to 1800 Contacts!?!

It was simple. I found out about it while reading at 1800′s website, registered, and voila’, I have cool links on my practice website for patients to conveniently order contacts and save money while doing it. If they buy stuff, then 1800′s ad manager sends me a check to say thanks for the referral. While I was browsing 1800contacts, I also registered for ProNet so they will send me referrals when someone’s Rx expires.

Here’s what the ads look like (and if you are by chance a non-optometrist reading this article, please click on this link the next time you need to reorder contacts):

So, if you are like “John Smith” and think that I am caught in a Link Gate scandal, then here is the website for Utah DOPL’s complaint department. But believe me that I’ve searched all the documents found online with the Utah DOPL, and John Doe’s alleged Utah rule is made up out of the same magical stuff that new grads grab onto if they want to start their own solo private practice: wishful thinking.

AFOS to 1-800Contacts Letter

The item in question is apparently that when someone selected a ship to FPO/APO (military speak for Fleet/Army Post Office), the 1800 website indicated that they did not require verification of the contact lens prescription. The letter was sent on March 28, 2008, and by the April 2008 edition of the AFOS newsletter, 1-800 had changed their website to indicate that FPO/APO address still required verification.

Okay, now if I were the optometrist to find out about the FPO/APO verification snaffu, then I would have maybe shot off a private e-mail or a phone call, probably stating the same thing about believing that the policy could be in violation of FCLCA. But then I wouldn’t be thinking like Big Optometry. Organized Optometry needs a win. After the AOA suffered a humiliating loss to 1-800 over the whole FCLCA, they need to throw it back in 1-800′s face. Even though military eye docs don’t sell contacts, AFOS must grandstand the point that they scored big against the eeeevil 1-800 Contacts.

Okay, here’s my question. Did AFOS seek out every other online retailer of contact lenses to check their policy about prescription verification of FPO/APO ship-to addresses? Did they send all of the other retailers letters about “a legal oversight” and publish these concerned memos in their next newsletter?

But I thought that if by some miracle R.Opt. makes a link to my site, I’d better update more about what I’ve discussed with others about the whole partnership with 1-800 and Wal-Mart since my original post. Of course, this has been a hot topic at Wal-MartOD.com and at other sites like the highly secretive society of ODwire (which I don’t read anymore because, hey, it’s a secret).

So in my last post, you read the e-mail that I immediately sent back to Wal-Mart HQ the moment I heard about the news. The next day I went to work, and to my utter amazement, my vision center manager thought the partnership was pretty cool. Why? Apparently, Wal-Mart currently buys their contacts directly from each company, so this partnership is supposed to make the process faster for the patient. It is also supposed to help lower costs since 1-800 and Wal-Mart can combine their buying power to ask for a deeper discount from the individual contact lens manufacturers.

Then the district manager called and expressed the same opinions, but also added that Wal-Mart would save money by transferring the expensive maintaining of walmart.com’s online contact lens sales to 1-800′s website. She also said that 1800 has a huge brand recognition. If you walk-up to someone on the street and ask them where one could go to buy contacts, something like 40% will say 1-800-Contacts.

So this tells me that Wal-Mart is using 1-800 as their sort of high recognition buying group. In my practice, I order most lenses through a buying group like Lensco, but then some lenses I just purchase through the manufacturer, and hard lenses I get through Valley Contax ( I know Lensco does hard lenses also, but Valley has the I-Kone and my alumni’s C.A.D. design.)

So is it a sin for Wal-Mart to get itself a buying group? Of course not, unless that buying group happens to belong to the Spawn of Satan. Okay, all kidding aside, I wrote the following follow-up e-mail to Dr. Patel:

…I would gladly be willing to recant anything I’ve said about 1800 CONTACTS if they would join the Vision Council of America, prominently display the “Check Yearly. See Clearly.” logo (checkyearly.com), erase from their site any directions for consumers to subvert doctor recommended expiration dates, and withdraw their lobbying efforts for government mandates on 2-year expiration dates.

You should include that as part of your bargain with them.

So, just because 1800 sells contacts online doesn’t make them my enemy. It’s their coaching of consumers to badger doctors about prescription expiration dates and worse, their lobbying for laws to mandate to doctors a minimum 2-year expiration date (which succeeded into become a Utah state law).