I’m not positive that solo private practice has an infinite future. It’s getting harder to compete without large volume. I think multi-doctor power practices and chain opticals with buying power are the only ones with a chance of staying in the game 20 years from now. Does anyone want to defend poor, little solo private practice optometry?
I agree completely. Private practice will continue in more rural parts of the country. Large urban areas will see private practices dissappear.
With more and more pts getting Eyemed ($35/exam) or $45/VSP exam, even less with Cole and online frame retailers that sell for less than I get charged to ship a pair of lenses that I can edge in-office, the private office will be dead. Even more annoying is when pts suck down an hour or two of staff time, only to order the exact same frame on-line, ask us for the pd and seg height, then come back later for us to adjust the frame! They think we are ripping them off, because the online retailers sell the frames so cheap. The retailers buy them for pennies on the dollars from Optical places going out of business. So they can buy one frame from Silhouette for $130, 5 identical frames for $10 from a practice going out of business, and use the original frames warranty if a problem arises.