This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
BLOG: Finding your 'pot of gold'
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
As I write this today, I am enjoying a sunny St. Patrick’s Day here in Philadelphia. As an Irishman, I am wearing my green and thinking about that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Like the Irish, may optometrists also have dreams of finding that elusive prize, but some are becoming disillusioned about our profession being able to provide the rainbow bridge to get there.
The worn and well-traveled path of good refractions, comfortable glasses and excellent visual results used to be guarantee of a comfortable living and long retirement in the land of milk and honey. In today’s world of refracting kiosks and online glasses, the gold has lost some shine and might, in fact, be gold paint on tin coins.
A number of factors have evolved that have lowered the reimbursement for routine refractive eye care. In addition to the aforementioned pressure for that self-pay dollar, several vision care plans have developed vertical supply chains. These programs start with the dirt and other raw materials to make a pair of glasses and run up to owning the retail outlets to supply the basic refractive care and hardware at a small fraction of the traditional cost. As the retail outlets grow and spread from state to state, the traditional optometrist has good reason to wonder how they are going to survive.
Many of us saw the writing on the wall for this type of evolution many years ago. As early as the 1970s, progressive leaders in optometry started to push for better education and training in medical eye care that led to changes in the law to allow optometrist to provide and be paid for medical care. If you began to build the medical aspect of your practice 20 or so years ago, then the changes noted above are not as concerning, and your rainbow looks a little brighter. New technology with testing and scans has opened the doors to better care and a more secure line of revenue. But is this alone going to get you to that pot of gold?
If you have been following these blogs and thinking about the concepts and ideas that I have presented as health care reform has evolved and taken shape, then you also may be enjoying this bright day on the verge of spring. As an astute reader and thinker, you probably know where I am going with this and can already see that gold twinkling at the end of the rainbow.
The key to health care reform is better preventive health care. This means patient education, early diagnosis and early intervention. The best time to manage chronic medical problems is before they evolve. We know that there are not enough primary care resources to meet the need for routine wellness care. We also know that our culture does not promote wellness-based health care. We don’t go to the doctor until we are sick and, even then, would rather Google our symptoms, diagnose ourselves and find the correct nuts, berries, seeds or juices to relieve our distress.
So, what is one of the key factors that actually does drive people to the doctor? Come on, you know…it is blurred vision! And which doctor is the most common health care provider seen for those patients between ages 13 and 30? Yep, the optometrist. Oh, and what is the age where chronic health care problems such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension and obesity evolve from foot notes in the chart into long-term illness? Yep, 13-30. So there you have it. That string of facts is building your rainbow.
The health care system allocates very few dollars for routine eye and vision care. The kiosks, Internet and vertical hardware folks are driving that number ever lower. But how much of the health care dollar is allocated to primary health care? Yep, right again. The “pot of gold”!