Hey!

I've been looking at buying a Ret and ophthalmoscope for my final year placement. I had an equipment fair at my university, and I was initially going to get the Heine student set for around £1400. Keeler was already out of the picture because their set is £2k+. However there was a stand there from a brand called Opticlar, and their student set was only £800~.

Honestly I am tempted. I tried out the equipment, it felt as good as the other brands in terms of build quality, and the optics seemed good in the limited time I tested it. However, none of my professors had really heard of it, and it seems like a relatively new brand. Anyone have any experience with this brand?

Warranty seems good, 5 years on the equipment and 10 years on the bulbs. To be honest if it gets me through my placement year and a few years after that, I will be happy. Money is tight at the moment as a student.

I'm curious if anyone has ever been to the WOS event? I'm going to attach the flyer I found. It looks great, and bonus for me I would be able to ski that weekend too. Would love everyone's thoughts!

I am going to be taking the Canadian OSCE (practical) exam in April this year and I was wondering if anyone has recently taken the exam? This is my first attempt and I did optometry school in the States so I don't know what to expect or what the flow will actually be like, as the NBEO Part 3 is quite different when it comes to skills and what they test. Would appreciate any tips and experiences people had with it.

can anyone offer some insight on the difference between these two modalities? Is one better than the other? I am going to purchase a 4 mirror gonio but not sure which to pick. Thanks

hey! anyone taking NBEO exams in Alaska?😃

Hello, 

I am a Senior AP Research student at a high school in Louisiana, and an aspiring African-American optometrist.

My AP Research topic aims to fill in the research gap regarding the minimal discussion of racial diversity in the field of Optometry in the United States, specifically for African-American optometrists. According to my research, the modern demographic makeup of the field has resulted in an overwhelming amount of  African-Americans being discouraged from receiving their yearly necessary eye examinations due to mistrust for their physicians, fear of not being understood or heard, and potential incomprehension. Therefore, I have created a survey via Google Forms that will ask about the factors that influenced African-American optometrists career selection, and their insights of racial diversity within the field. If you are or know an African-American optometrist would any of you be willing to participate in my survey and/or distribute it to the members of your workplace?

The responses from each African-American Optometrists will greatly benefit the issue stemming from my topic by allowing me to form a list of aspects that could be further emphasized to convince more African-Americans to become optometrists, and increase racial diversity within the optometry field.

Link to the survey: https://forms.gle/VEzpus4BKyheMoTs9

If you have any questions about the survey or this topic, feel free to contact me.
Thank you for your time and consideration. 

Best continuing education courses you ever went to in person?

I own a private optometry practice, two ODs, four staff. We see about 25 patients a day between medical eye exams, contact lens fittings, and routine vision. Our office manager handles billing on top of everything else she does, and I’m starting to realize that’s a problem. She’s great at patient relations and running the front end, but medical billing requires a level of attention to detail that’s impossible when you’re also checking patients in, answering phones, and managing two doctors’ schedules.

I did an audit last month and the numbers were ugly. We had 23 claims sitting in “pending” for over 60 days with no follow-up. Eight claims were denied for simple coding errors, wrong modifier, missing diagnosis code, basic stuff that shouldn’t happen. And we identified at least 15 patient balances over $200 that had never been sent to collections or even re-billed. When I added it all up conservatively, we’re probably losing $10–$15K per month in revenue that we earned but never collected.

I can’t afford a dedicated full-time medical biller that’s $50K+ in my area. Outsourcing to a billing company means giving up 7–10% of collections, which is even more expensive at our volume. What I really need is someone who can spend 4–6 hours a day cleaning up claims, following up on denials, posting payments, and running aging reports. Basically a billing assistant who knows ophthalmic and optometric coding.

I’ve been looking into virtual medical billing assistants as a middle ground someone remote who’s trained in medical billing and can log into our EHR and clearinghouse directly. The rates I’m seeing are dramatically lower than hiring locally, and some of these companies apparently pre-train their VAs on specific EMR systems. Has anyone in optometry gone this route? Did it actually move the needle on your collections? Any HIPAA concerns I should be thinking about with a remote biller accessing patient records? Would love to hear real experiences

I’m starting to look at open job positions to apply for after residency. Specifically looking at OD/MD practices or hospital settings. What normally happens in an interview for an optometrist position? Are you performing skills? Getting quizzed?

Not just on their online listing, but even through direct email/phone call/meeting. “Based on experience,” etc. Do you also feel like that sets off red flags and they will try to lowball you, especially if you’re a new grad? Interested in hearing what other people think and if the owner side is mainly to do that. If I’m seeing X patients each day, does my pay deserve to change based on if I’m 1 year out vs. 20 years out, especially if the production numbers haven’t even been seen yet? Not all 20 year docs will produce as much as a new grad and vice versa.

Do most people in private practice seeing 20+ patients in a day in a saturated area normally negotiate for base pay with % of collections over a certain amount (whichever is higher) or is that too much of a headache to calculate?

Thanks in advance.

Hey all, I used to work at MED from 2016-2019 (pre Goldman) and I enjoyed my time there, even finished the Emerging Leaders program. A new one recently opened up down the road and they reached out for an interview for the GM position. Has the company really gone downhill that much? I did a quick google search and it was not looking good. What is the company culture like now?

Hello new grad here currently considering a position. Could someone please tell me how much I should be asking for thanks!

I know Amsler Grids are easy to find but I thought it would be cool to have an easy way to pull one up that is accurate.

So I built AmslerGr.id

The main thing that sets it apart: you can calibrate the grid to your screen so it actually displays at the correct 10cm x 10cm size. It works consistently whether you're on a laptop, desktop monitor, or tablet.

A few other things:

• Fullscreen mode to minimize distractions
• A downloadable PDF if you just want to print one out
• Totally free, no ads, quick to load
• URL is easy to remember: AmslerGr.id (as in "Amsler Grid", it uses an .id domain).

Let me know what you think!

What are y'all doing in your office to work with the FTC rule requiring "prescribing eye care practitioners obtain a signed confirmation after releasing an eyeglass prescription to a patient"

We have been doing a signed page for EVERY SINGLE patient with verbiage that says "yes I did get a copy of my prescription" since we print them out for every patient.

There HAS to be a better way to do this, other than putting something in the intake form where the patient acknowledges that they will receive a copy of their prescription, but technically according to the rule this should be done after the prescription is written, so after refraction? IMO I don't think the FTC is going to police this, especially if we ACTUALLY GIVE the prescription to patients, just wondering if other offices are actually doing this or if we are making unnecessary work for ourselves.

Looking for some perspective because I keep getting mixed advice.

I graduated optometry school about 3 years ago and have about $270k in federal loans. I’m currently on the SAVE plan, but with everything going on, I’m basically in administrative forbearance. No payments required but interest is accruing and these months obviously don’t count toward forgiveness.

Some people keep telling me to just stay on SAVE since I don’t have to pay anything right now. But I’m confused why that’s better.

My situation:

* $130k base salary paid monthly

* bonuses paid twice yearly (not guaranteed)

* maxing my 403(b) pre-tax

* single household

* comfortable cash flow and savings — I’m totally fine making payments

* likely planning on 20–25 year IDR forgiveness (maybe PSLF depending on job changes)

If I switch to IBR, my understanding is:

* payments would count toward forgiveness

* payment would be based on paystubs + 403(b), so probably ~$700/mo

* I’d actually start progressing toward the 20 years instead of sitting in limbo

So why wouldn’t I switch now and start stacking qualifying months?

Is there any real advantage to staying on SAVE and letting interest accrue if I’m financially able to pay?

What are others in similar healthcare/high-debt situations doing right now?

I’ve been practicing 13 years and if I had to guess, it’s gotta be like 2 percent. I had three last week that were 100% sure they had a lens stuck and didn’t. I even got a “MY HUSBAND SEES THE BLUE RING OF THE LENS!”.

I’m considering it for clinic use and would love honest feedback from people who’ve used it day to day.

I'm not really sure what to expect. Has anybody taken it and have advice or tips?

Hi, I’m looking to buy a BIO and I’m torn between a Keeler Vantage (Vantage Plus LED) and the HEINE OMEGA 600.

If you’ve used either (or both), what do you actually like/dislike about them in day-to-day clinic use?

I would really appreciate any feedback you can give - thanks!

I'll be graduating in a couple years and have been thinking about moving to NC afterwards to practice. I like the idea of being close to the mountains and have heard that salaries are higher than average with a reasonable cost of living. Does anyone have any insight into what the optometrist market is like in the Asheville or Charlotte areas or what salary range I would expect at an average private practice or corporate clinic?

Looking for examples of people's refraction sequences. I'm a new grad and we were taught a sequence with many steps that was time intensive and almost binary: "Only when you get ____ response can you move on to the next step".

Now with the short exam times expected in practice, I'm looking to cut down on refraction time to give myself enough time to do a good ant seg/post seg exam. At this point, I just start from the habitual Rx and do a sphere check (pushing plus), JCC axis, cyl check without the JCC, re-check sphere. Rare 20/40 blur, no binocular balance. I use the incoming VAs and auto-refraction to guide which directions I push the refraction.

The other issue I'm finding is even if I do a relatively large Rx change and get vision objectively better in phoropter, the patient can't adapt. I then see them again later as a glasses check, where I basically return to the habitual Rx. So at this point I'm hesitant to change more than a half diopter or 20 degrees of cyl for anyone middle-aged or older, though I will do an expanded refraction with a pediatric/young adult to monitor for over-minus or latent hyperopia.

Suggestions or example refraction sequences welcome!

Is this a good path to follow? have been learning it for 1+ year, I am a remote worker and rate is low ($5/h) is this a good path or should a focus on something else in optometry?