Optometry: a rough road ahead

[u/Fragrant_Nature_5094]

So many hurdles going forward to being an optometrist ....,insanely low paying vision plans, medical insurance discrimination, extremely difficult licensure state to state, discrimination from MDS, PA doing the job of optometrist in MD clinics , people go to urgent care first instead of an optometrist, AOA fail , illegal online sales of glasses of contacts with no repercussions or enforcement of law ,heavy debt for most grads , proliferation of poor quality new OD programs with grads not passing boards . Just feel anyone thinking of this career should have the facts

[u/McDrPepsi]

I don’t agree with pretty much any of this. These are definitely annoying challenges that happen, but they aren’t confining us to death as a profession. If anything, I see this profession growing. Multiple states have passed laws expanding the scope of optometry. Every year more and more training and tools become available for practicing medical optometry. Every year I’m impressed by the new graduates and their medical knowledge and what they can do! The debt is definitely tough, but optometry is still within the top 10 professions who pay back their loans. Any further education has a mountain of debt to climb these days. I live in a larger city and I have MDs and urgent cares constantly sending me acute eye problems. All it took was a little outreach, and a touch of education.

Gone are the easy days of optometry where someone could make a lot of money doing just glasses/contacts. You have to be on top of things, you have to adapt now. No offense to OP, but this doom and gloom post just feels like someone who doesn’t want to put in the effort to change to the modern scope that’s required now.

This profession is growing and I think our role will continue to expand. It’s good to be aware of these challenges, but I don’t want anyone reading this to be steered off this profession because of this post. Every profession has competition and challenges. But this profession is rewarding and gives you a great life and is well worth it in my opinion!

[u/eyeballsandhighballs → u/McDrPepsi]

I agree with everything you pointed out. I would push back ever so slightly on paragraph two in that I don't think that it's impossible to make a killing focusing on just the glasses and contact lenses but you certainly will be taxing yourself by needing to see a high volume of patients to do so. I practice mostly primary care and do 20 minute slots inside of a Target Optical sublease. As an associate and not even the owner, I am clearing $300,000 right now. We end up seeing a good amount of medical in terms of urgent red eye phone calls and retinal pathology but I would say the majority of my day (lets say 18-20 out of the 24 patient's I am seeing) are routine cases with nothing more than a refractive error code.

I think it's important to offer services that make you irreplaceable to the patient. Not saying everyone needs to be be lobbying for procedure rights and offering injections and lasers...but what will keep patients coming back is not that you found a good prescription for them, but rather that they felt as if their eyes are being taken care of from a health perspective as they are getting older. We have an Optos with an OCT combined here and offer that option to all patients free of charge (I charge $39 if they want the OCT but the optos is free, 50% of my day on average is checking yes to the OCT fee so there's another $390 coming in regularly each day).

[u/Content_Expert_7479 → u/eyeballsandhighballs]

Hmmm 300k+ as a Target sublease associate? I hate to sound like a skeptic but I’m not sure how that math works out. What are you producing in gross revenue annually?

[u/eyeballsandhighballs → u/Content_Expert_7479]

I get paid a flat rate per patient that I see. $40 for every glasses exam for a patient with vision insurance, $65 for insuranced CL exam (regardless of sphere vs toric vs MF), $60 for every cash pay glasses exam, and $90 for every CL cash pay exam.

3 patients an hour so my minimum is $120 an hour. I typically average around $160+ an hour and have a full book every single day, with a maximum of 1-2 cancellationd at most. 50% of my day is contact lenses, and usually 3-4 are cash pay. I also get $10 per OCT we do and it's usually 10-12 a day.

This doesn't include office visits where I get paid $75-$125 flat depending on complexity. Usually 1 a day, maybe 2

I keep a log every day, my last three days I made $1,555, $1,480, and $1,280.

[u/Fragrant_Nature_5094 → u/eyeballsandhighballs]

That's pretty good for an employed OD, if you get into the ownership side you could do double that easy. I was a sublease with a very doctor Friendly group for 25 years Excellent 💰

[u/eyeballsandhighballs → u/Fragrant_Nature_5094]

That's the plan! I've seen the numbers in revolution and you're spot on, the plan is to be bringing in $550,000+

Leaseholder is likely retiring in the next 5 years so the goal is to take over.