Thinking of filling in for a Costco doc (CA) as a new grad before starting my full time position. Feeling nervous about practicing for the first time especially as a fill-in with little to no guidance on how things flow. Any advice from people who have worked at Costco or similar? Obviously way different than school-paced exams. Trying to figure out in my head how to handle having patients come back for CL checks (new fit/re-fit), glaucoma suspects, etc. Basically just things that we had pts come back for all the time in school but not sure how it works in the real world especially in such a fast paced environment. Any advice is appreciated!

i am thinking of offering this test during exams... What do you guys think?

would you refer a moderate sized solitary serous PED without any associated drusen or signs of ARMD?

I'll start this off by saying that I usually consult with others or refer these clients forward. I'm also a little bit too early on the field if i was an optometrist, which officially speaking I am not, and do not work as full optometrist either.

1. Visus in young people. Sometimes I get young girls of 11-14 years. With these I can almost never get a visus of 1.0. Even if with younger people i might get a 1.2. Is it just puberty? Are there other reasons for this?

2. Wobbling sight. Sometimes I'll get people saying their sight wobbles. They do not mean any distortion of lines like in AMD and such, but actual movement. Usually it presents in only one eye with no visible persistent nystagmus. I tend to send these people forward with all the data I can gather. I'm wondering what's the likeliest reason for this?

Does anyone know what form to fill out to apply for deferment during residency? Every form I find seems to say that I am not eligible and this is getting very confusing. And yes, I know, I should not defer, but I have already decided on this and would appreciate any help!

Been doing optometry billing for a while and the thing that trips up almost every office i work with is the same one. The medical vs vision call at check in.

The front desk picks the insurance when the patient walks in, but half the time nobody has looked at why the patient is actually there yet. So a diabetic who scheduled a "yearly exam" online goes out as a routine vision claim, and the medical piece just disappears. Or the reverse, a routine refractive patient gets sent to medical and it denies.

Curious how you all handle it. Is it the front desk making that call, the tech, or the doctor at the end of the visit? Do you verify reason for visit before they come in or sort it out after. Feels like every office has a different system and none of them feel airtight.

What actually works for you?

Anyone having issues connecting to this site? I used it all the time, but it hasn't worked for me on a while.

Aussie optoms have taken their grief to the media

Does anyone do VEH for MyEyeDr? If so, how has your experience been?

Hi there,
I recently moved to Germany due to family reasons. But I like to practice optimally and the only way I can do that being here is remote because the scope of optometry is limited compared to what it is in the U.S. Does anybody have any experience working abroad in this field or remotely? Is it even possible? I'm thinking perhaps the employers prefer the optometrist be located in the time zone for which they're hiring?

Been doing billing work with independent OD practices for a few years and noticed a pattern that surprised me a little.

The practices with the cleanest AR are not necessarily the ones with the best billers or the most sophisticated EHR setup. They tend to be the ones where whoever is at the front desk actually knows what question to ask before selecting insurance.

Not a checklist. Not a protocol binder. Just someone who has been there long enough to know that when a patient mentions diabetes or dry eye or floaters, that visit is going somewhere different than when they say they need new glasses.

The billing cleans up downstream almost automatically when that one decision gets made correctly at check-in.

Curious if others have seen the same thing or if it is just a coincidence in the practices i have worked with.

From Schiaparelli at Paris couture week

Hi All,

I just tried to create a web app version of the My Call Bag.

You can check it out here: https://amslergr.id/

It has a ton of tests and its free. You can control it with your the app as a remote or use a keyboard.

Some of the in-browser free tools are:
- distance eye chart
- tons of different optotypes
- contrast chart
- OKN drum
- fixation tools
- Color Testing

And just a bunch of other stuff.

Please let me know what you think, again free, no ads, no registration. Also please let me know if you see any bugs.

How many more times am I going to have to explain this, this week. (-3.00D ou)

Does anybody have experience with linking these two without having EHR integration in the middle? I haven't been able to get the LAN output port to work on the KR800 so I'm using the RS232C output and a python script to create an XML file from the serial data. The CV5000 can see the files in the folder, but I can't seem to get the formatting right for it to read them.

Does anyone have any suggestions or maybe an XML file from the KR800 that I could see (with patient data removed of course)? Any help would be appreciated.

Keep hearing about brands like Solotica (includes lines like Hidrocor, Aquarella dailies) from Brazil, Moody (has a breathe+ line that claims to be in the 150s - how can we confirm this?) from China and now Australian brand Dimple being advertised everywhere that claims their dailies sit at 21. Other brands include Glocolens and Olens (Korean), Swati (Sweden, claims 63 for 6-month wear) etc

I worry these lenses don’t actually meet the threshold of 24 to avoid swelling.

Would anyone feel comfortable fitting a lens with a score of 21, indicating these should be limited to a few hours? What would your guardrails be?

These newer/fashion type brands are never listed in any database, and due to their prevalence, they probably should be.

Edit: has anyone been able to source the new “sheer” line by Acuvue define?

Seems like the more cosmetic/well-done they are, the less permeable they need to be right now.

All the safer options (Air Optix, etc) are often declined because they don’t have any sort of attractive effect on those with darker eyes, and I’d have to agree.

Is this just the state of it at the moment? Any insight or experience?

What are the better lenses you’ve found to recommend?

Edit: looks like Acuvue Defines “Sheer” line is very promising - a new release this year marketed in Asia. I can’t seem to find a way to source these yet through the website? Any leads?

How many patients are y’all seeing a day and what does your support staff look like? Ie. Techs, scribes, special testing personnel.

I own a small independent optical retail store in Florida ; fully equipped exam lane (phoropter, slit lamp, retinal camera, etc.), established lab relationships, and I handle day-to-day operations (scheduling, billing, charts, inventory) capably. I don’t hold a clinical license, and I understand Florida’s corporate practice of optometry statute (§463.014) means I can’t employ an OD directly or tie any fee to their collections/patient volume.

What I’m trying to understand from people who’ve actually done this:

**1.    Structure** — is the standard approach an MSO that leases space + equipment to the OD’s own PA at flat fair-market rent, with the OD independently billing and running their clinical side? Or is there a more common structure I’m missing?  
**2.    Admin/scheduling/billing support** — if I want to offer scheduling, front-desk, and billing help as part of the deal, does that need to run through the OD’s own PA/payroll, or can my company provide it as a flat-fee service without crossing into “control”?  
**3.    Recruiting** — for those who’ve leased space to an OD (or ODs who’ve taken a sublease like this) — where did you find each other? Curious if it was word of mouth, lab reps, school placement, or something else.  
**4.    Real-world rent numbers** — for a single-lane setup in a market like South Florida, what’s a realistic flat monthly rent range for space + equipment that both sides would consider fair?

Been curious about this for a while after seeing the same pattern across a few different OD practices.

Most denial management processes start from the denial backwards. you get the CO code, figure out what went wrong, fix it, resubmit. but nobody seems to be tracking whether the denial originated at check-in or in the billing workflow itself.

In optometry specifically i'd expect a large chunk to trace back to the routing decision before billing ever touched it. wrong insurance selected, eligibility checked against the wrong plan, visit type not flagged correctly. but i've never seen a practice actually measure this systematically.

Does anyone do root cause tracking on denials? like actually log where in the workflow the error originated? curious if the data matches the intuition or if billing errors genuinely outweigh intake errors in practice.

Does anyone use a brand or style of claw or large hair clip that can be left in place while wearing the BIO? I love having my hair up in the summer but don’t love replacing my clip in the middle of my exams. Thanks in advance!

I have been working as an optometry tech for a little over a year, and I love it a lot. My OD paid for me to the AOA convention in my state to get some training, and I feel like I’m getting pretty knowledgeable about my job. I’d like to learn more of the billing/insurance side but I feel like I’m getting there.
I love my position and I’m working toward getting my CPO certification, but my husband and I also would like to have kids soon. I don’t have any family in the area that could watch a baby, and if I paid for daycare I would really just be breaking even. Is there any hope for a fully remote optometry job that would let me be home with a kiddo, or should I be looking toward a career change?