This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Wal-Mart, 1-800 CONTACTS strike alliance
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Retail giant Wal-Mart is billing its new alliance with 1-800 CONTACTS as a move that would “help drive down health care costs,” according to a joint press release from the two companies.
But some optometrists and a Utah company that had a previous agreement with the Internet retailer fear that patients’ eye health may pay the price.
The companies plan to integrate store, Web and phone services this fall as well as streamline their purchasing and distribution efforts, a move that will help save customers $400 million over the next 3 years, said Wal-Mart spokeswoman Deisha Galberth in an interview with Primary Care Optometry News.
“With this initiative we allow our customers choice and give them an option for purchasing contact lenses at the best price and in the most convenient way,” Ms. Galberth said. “Health care for so many folks is not affordable. Our goal is to make it a bit more affordable and convenient for our customers.”
As part of the long-term agreement, 1-800 CONTACTS would steer customers needing contact lens exams to a nearby Wal-Mart or Sam’s Club vision center, Ms. Galberth added.
Wal-Mart doctors speak
Michael J. Vaske, OD, who practices in a Parker, Colo., Wal-Mart said he and his colleagues worry that patients use the 1-800 CONTACTS service to “stock up” on lenses and avoid necessary yearly eye exams. He said that 1-800 CONTACTS encourages this by allowing unlimited orders.
“[The alliance] may help get patients to get their annual supply, which will probably help with compliance. However, if they know they can’t order past a certain date, even though they have a lot of contacts left they will still order more,” Dr. Vaske told PCON in an interview. “Then they will think they just saved $50 because they don’t have to pay for another exam for 6 months.”
A company spokesman from 1-800 CONTACTS said the new alliance will help make it “easier to follow doctors’ orders for better eye health.” Part of that is verifying each prescription. “We receive our information from the contact lens wearer,” 1-800’s Kevin McCallum told PCON. “One of the purposes of verifying the prescription ... is to inform the eye care provider of what the wearer intends to purchase.”
Dr. Vaske was one of several doctors to express his concerns on a Web site created for Wal-Mart optometrists, www.wal-martod.com. Some doctors also wrote in to praise the deal, citing patient convenience as a factor.
When David J. Langford, OD, who practices at a Wal-Mart in Logan, Utah, and authors optoblog.com, heard the news about the alliance, he immediately fired off a letter to corporate headquarters, urging them to reconsider. Dr. Langford posted his letter on his blog.
“An alliance with 1-800 disgraces our reputation,” Dr. Langford wrote. He went on to complain that he believes 1-800 CONTACTS tries to coach consumers to ask for prescriptions that last longer than 1 year, despite industry recognition that yearly eye exams are important. He cited the company’s Web site as an example.
Under the title, “The One Year Myth,” the Web site says, “Some eye care providers tell you that they cannot issue an expiration date of more than 1 year. This is not true. One year is a minimum, not a maximum. You should discuss your wearing habits and eye health with your eye care provider to determine if you can have a longer prescription length.”
Paul Klein, OD, a private practitioner in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., said the alliance scares a lot of doctors, especially when it comes to patient acquisition and patient control. He does not believe the partnership will change the industry either way. “However, it’s going to make a lot of people paranoid because it’s such a pairing,” Dr. Klein told PCON.
Wal-Mart defends 1-800
Ms. Galberth said optometrists need not worry about 1-800 CONTACTS trying to circumvent yearly eye examinations. “We are confident that the partnership with them will help to improve eye health, not worsen it for our customer base,” Ms. Galberth said. “We think that by lowering the costs and making it more convenient and accessible for our customers to get contact lenses that they will end up with better eye health in the long run.”
Ms. Galberth stressed that 1-800 CONTACTS will refer patients who need eye exams to one of the 3,000 Wal-Mart or Sam’s Club stores.
“Right now they don’t have those sorts of relationships with doctors, and so I think that you will find a change, perhaps, in their philosophy when it comes to the solutions that they provide or suggestions that [1-800 CONTACTS] provides to its customers when it comes to seeing their eye doctor,” she said.
Standard Optical/1-800 CONTACTS agreement
Aaron Schubach, chief operations officer for Standard Optical in Utah, said Standard Optical made a similar 24-month pact with 1-800 CONTACTS in 2004. The online retailer promised to steer patients to one of Standard Optical’s 16 Utah locations for eye exams and contact lens fittings.
“Their ability to deliver on that part of it was weak,” Mr. Schubach told PCON in an interview. “They wouldn’t use our exam technology. We use an electronic scheduler, so it would be easy for someone in a call center to book an appointment with us, but they didn’t.
“We felt like we were supposed to be the preferred eye exam vendor, and they didn’t deliver on that,” Mr. Schubach continued. “They were sending patients all over the place.”
Mr. Schubach said, for its part of the deal, Standard Optical agreed to fit as many patients as possible in soft contact lenses manufactured at the time by 1-800 CONTACTS called AquaSoft.
“They are very big in legislative efforts,” he said. “If legislation was passed to allow a generic lens to be filled in lieu of the brand lens, that would give them a strong advantage,” he said.
Mr. McCallum said no plans are in the works for 1-800 CONTACTS to resume manufacturing contact lenses. “The company just divested its manufacturing operations less than a year ago,” he said.
Standard Optical and 1-800 CONTACTS parted amicably in 2006.
For more information:
- Wal-Mart can be reached at (800) WAL-MART; www.walmart.com/visioncenter.
- 1-800 CONTACTS can be reached in Draper, Utah, at (801) 316-5000; www.1800contacts.com.
- Michael J. Vaske, OD, can be reached at 11101 South Parker Road, Parker, CO 80134; (303) 840-4440; fax: (303) 382-3030; e-mail: myidr@hotmail.com.
- David J. Langford, OD, can be reached at 136 E. 800 South, Suite C, Smithfield, UT 84335; (435) 563-2020; e-mail david@optoblog.com.
- Paul Klein, OD, can be reached at 2502 East Oakland Park Blvd., Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33306; (954) 564-2020; e-mail: paulkleinod@cs.com.
- D COO for Standard Optical, can be reached at 1901 W. Parkway Blvd., Salt Lake City, UT 84119; (801) 886-2020; fax: (801) 954-0054; e-mail aaron@standardoptical.net.