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2007
VisionWeb Launches New Services VisionWeb announced the introduction of new electronic remittance advice (ERA) management and coding consulting services along with an online training program for eye care providers. The ERA management service will allow VisionWeb members to manage ERA information from insurance payers and help streamline insurance billing by automatically interpreting remittance information received from payers and delivering it electronically to eye care providers. Eye care providers will receive remittance information faster than with paper explanations of benefits and can reduce the time and paperwork spent on billing. The ERA management service is available as an add-on to VisionWeb monthly insurance transaction processing service or as a stand-alone. Current members can contact their account representative for more information. Non-members can call 800-590-0873, email sales@visionweb.com, or visit www.visionweb.com. The new coding consulting service is designed to help practices create, evaluate, and improve insurance coding processing and billing departments. The service includes a comprehensive evaluation of current billing techniques, recommendations for improvement and training/education as needed. “VisionWeb is pleased to introduce this extremely valuable service to VisionWeb members and prospective eye care practices nationwide,” said Jeffry B. Saddington, VisionWeb president and CEO. “Insurance coding and reimbursement has historically been challenging for many practices. Our goal is to provide practices with the insight and proper knowledge to effectively manage this vital part of their business.” The coding consulting service is available on a contractual basis and requires a minimum commitment to participate. To learn more about the consulting service, contact Suzanne Carter at 512-241-8502 or emails scarter@visionweb.com. The new online training program is geared toward educating current and prospective members on VisionWeb’s ordering and insurance processing services. VisionWeb representatives will conduct live training sessions and provide step-by-step training useful tips, and shortcuts on spectacle lens, contact lens, frame ordering, and insurance transaction processing services. The training sessions will be available to download as reference guides or for additional staff training. The online training program is free and open to all eye care providers. To view the program schedule and register for a session, visit www.visionweb.com and select “VisionWeb Training.” AOA News: Volume 46, No. 8; December 2007
December 19, 2007 | Return to the Top Each year, VisionWeb honors optical laboratories that have shown exemplary results growing and maintaining customer loyalty using VisionWeb. This year’s honorees are Aearo Technologies, Chickasha, Okla.; Southern Optical, Greensboro, N.C.; and Duffens/Langley Optical, Lenexa, Kan. These optical laboratories are among the top 30 labs receiving electronic orders through VisionWeb’s online ordering service. To determine the honorees, VisionWeb measured each lab’s ability to convert their customers’ orders from the phone, fax or other methods, and to retain and grow their customers’ VisionWeb usage. Votes received from VisionWeb members were also incorporated into the final calculations. In other VisionWeb news, the company announced the addition of new functionality enabling optical labs using Optifacts software to electronically submit and route orders to any lab using any VisionWeb-connected lab management software system. Previously, VisionWeb’s Open Network Exchange (O.N.E.) functionality enabled labs using Optifacts to receive inbound orders only, from eyecare providers and labs using other VisionWeb-connected lab management systems. Now with the new functionality, labs can send outbound orders electronically through VisionWeb O.N.E. to labs using any lab management system connected with VisionWeb. Vision Monday Lab Advisor Newsletter Issue 12/19/07
December 17, 2007 | Return to the Top Five years ago, the concept of communicating with optical laboratories via the Internet, of ordering frame and contact lens product from multiple suppliers online through a single site, or of keeping accurate track of managed vision claims and reimbursements electronically was foreign to many eyecare practitioners and optical retailers, especially smaller independents. Today, that convenience is commonplace for VisionWeb’s members, using the neutral industry portal at www.visionweb.com. Since 2002, more than 56,000 eyecare practices worldwide have registered to order products or process insurance transactions over the VisionWeb network, according to the company. More than 11,000 rely on VisionWeb’s services each day to send orders over one of 85 industry Web sites connected to VisionWeb’s supplier network. And with more than 365 suppliers currently connected to the network, VisionWeb maintains over 145,000 online practice-to-supplier relationships, generating millions of orders each year, its executives said. Exemplifying VisionWeb’s mission--“Connect the Commerce of the Eyecare Industry”--is the fact that the company’s software transacts more than 37,000 product orders daily...a volume currently growing at the fastest pace ever in VisionWeb’s five-year operating history. As Jeff Saddington, VisionWeb’s president and chief executive officer, put it, “The whole concept behind VisionWeb is that we are an open, neutral portal--everyone is treated the same, and everyone can play. Included in our mission is that every independent doctor needs the ability to have a choice in maximizing his or her practice.” Added Saddington, “VisionWeb is not just a Web site. We’re not a ‘dot-com’--we’re a technical service provider.” VisionWeb’s history actually goes back to 2000, when founders Essilor of America and Johnson & Johnson Vision Care (J&J) developed the concept of a neutral Internet portal for the optical industry. Its goal: to harness the power of the Web to enhance ECPs’ practices. Essilor and J&J were joined shortly thereafter by Allergan (now Advanced Medical Optics) as a third equity partner. The VisionWeb initiative got a strong boost in August 2001 by merging with Sightstreet, founded in January 2000 by VM parent Jobson Publishing, which became an equity partner in VisionWeb as part of the merger agreement. After months of Beta testing in about 100 eyecare practices, VisionWeb was officially launched in March 2002 at International Vision Expo East; at the same time, Marchon Eyewear was announced as a fifth equity partner. The site was launched with more than 100 optical suppliers offering products online through VisionWeb. At the launch announcement in New York, Al Berg, Marchon’s chief executive officer, predicted, “The key to VisionWeb’s success will be that it’s an open system--everybody in the industry is invited. Its purpose is to make the optical industry stronger.” Added Berg, “The vision we have is very clear: within 12 to 18 months VisionWeb will dramatically change the way business is done in the optical industry.” Those words proved to be prophetic as VisionWeb surged, spurred on by two strong executives who took over following the launch. Jacques Stoerr, who had retired as chairman of Essilor of America early in 2002 after helping to create the VisionWeb concept in 2000, came out of retirement in mid-2002 to serve a one-year term as VisionWeb’s chief executive officer (Jobson Information Services CEO Marc Ferrara, who preceded Stoerr as VisionWeb CEO on an interim basis after the Sightstreet merger, remains as VisionWeb’s chairman). A year later, Saddington, who had spent 30 years with Johnson & Johnson, succeeded Stoerr as CEO, having joined VisionWeb in August 2002 as chief operating officer. Under their direction, VisionWeb began rapidly expanding its relationships with the optical lab community and with suppliers of practice management systems. Another important step in broadening VisionWeb’s user base was an alliance with the America Optometric Association (AOA), through which the AOA became a VisionWeb equity partner and AOA members got free membership in VisionWeb, which also initiated a program providing royalties to state optometric societies allied with AOA based on members’ purchases through the site. This year, VisionWeb presented a $35,000 check to the AOA to distribute among the 31 participating state affiliates. VisionWeb then launched a new online managed-vision service, so members could verify patient eligibility, process electronic claims, and check claims status on behalf of multiple payers through its single site. Other evolutions have occurred over the years. In late 2003, VisionWeb introduced a tiered ordering structure, adding the fee-based VisionWeb Enhanced multi-payer insurance-transaction processing service as an enhancement to the existing--and free--VisionWeb Essential service. The company announced its first affiliation with a practice management (PM) system, OfficeMate Software Solutions, early in 2004; today, close to a dozen PM systems are integrated for orders, more than 20 PM systems have signed to have this capability and over two dozen PM systems are able to send claims directly. In 2005, a new VisionWeb Connect program provided streamlined order-processing for ECPs and their labs, so labs could enjoy the benefits of being a part of the VisionWeb supplier network, regardless of the lab-management software system running their operations. Last year, VisionWeb launched an improved online frames ordering service for its members. And the company continues to refine its services. Recently, VisionWeb unveiled a new electronic remittance advice management service, which Mike O’Malley, VisionWeb’s chief operating officer, said “allows us to offer a more comprehensive solution to eyecare providers for managing the processes and cash flows involved with insurance processing.” Also new is an online training program covering VisionWeb’s services, plus a coding consultant service to help practices identify opportunities for improved claim reimbursement rates and cash flow. VisionWeb also continues to work closely with its ECP members to determine what additional services might be most helpful for them, guided by vice president of professional relations Stan Yamane, OD. So VisionWeb has come a long way since its launch five years ago. As Stoerr said when he became VisionWeb’s CEO in mid-2002, “There’s always resistance to change, which we’ve seen in other areas of the optical business. But if something is good and works better, it will fly. I have a deep conviction that in five years most doctors will be saying, ‘I wonder how we ever did things before VisionWeb?’” And Saddington summed up, “Our reputation is growing, and we hope we are viewed as a company that will help suppliers, ECPs and practice management firms be the best they can be.” -- Cathy Ciccolella, Senior Editor Vision Monday Volume Number: 21:14 Issue 12/17/07
December 17, 2007 | Return to the Top For eyecare professionals who have shifted much of their product ordering, lab communications and managed-vision claims verification and processing from paper files to the Internet, these online services provide convenience as well as improved accuracy, ECPs told VM. From independent practitioners in single offices to multi-doctor national and regional groups, these computer-age advancements have become an accepted--and for many a preferred--way of doing business. Joe Ellis, OD, for example, practices in Benton, Ky., as part of the five-office Eyecare Associates of Kentucky group. Ellis has been using VisionWeb’s services since the Internet portal’s official launch in 2002; he was introduced to VisionWeb through his membership in the American Optometric Association. “In the beginning, I just used VisionWeb to communicate with my labs,” Ellis said. “Now we order contact lenses online as well, and for the last 18 months have also used it for insurance reimbursements. VisionWeb is a good intermediary with the insurance companies.” VisionWeb was his introduction to online ordering, Ellis noted; before the portal launched, his practice communicated with its labs via fax and telephone. In addition to the speed and efficiency of its connection with VisionWeb, Eyecare Associates of Kentucky also noticed a boost in accuracy in its communications, Ellis added: “It cut down on the transport errors you get using a fax.” Birmingham, Ala., optometrist Tommy Crooks III, OD, of 20-location EyeCare Associates, has also been a VisionWeb user since the portal was launched. “The number one thing we use it for is its spectacle-lens ordering capability,” Crooks said. “Number two is managed-vision claim processing.” He said the practice’s lens ordering volume via VisionWeb has gradually increased to the point where about 90 percent of lens orders are done online. “It took about six months before it became routine to order through Vision Web, but now, as the site has added suppliers and our comfort level has increased, it’s changed our staff’s behavior,” Crooks told VM. “We no longer inventory any lenses--we order them all electronically and use our tracing capability.” Chris Cooper, OD, is one of six optometrists (along with two ophthalmologists) practicing in three-office West Tennessee Eye in the Memphis area. His practice is a relative latecomer to VisionWeb, signing on for its services within the past 12 months. But he has become a big fan, due primarily to the boost in efficiency it provides his practice. “Our staff absolutely loves it because of the increased efficiency,” Cooper declared. “And we’ve seen actual savings: our claim costs have dropped 25 percent since we joined VisionWeb compared to what we were paying our previous clearinghouse. We also like that VisionWeb provides confirmation of clean and valid claims, and that the system is prepopulated each time, with information stored so we can search denied claims by patient name, for example, which we couldn’t do before.” Ellis, Crooks and Cooper all expressed interest in VisionWeb’s new training programs as another element that could help their practices going forward. Said Cooper, “Staff is the number one issue for all practices, and having a Web-based portal offering quality training should be a huge success.” Larger groups of ECPs are also making use of VisionWeb’s online services. Joe Mallinger, OD and MBA, president and chief executive officer of Vision West, Inc. (VWI), with 5,000 members nationwide, stated, “All of us know that our industry is changing and consolidating. Every eyecare professional has a computer, and a high percentage of them are using practice management software programs today. With the advent of computers in offices and more reasonable costs for programs, technology is being recognized as a business-management tool, and something our VWI customers want to know more about. As a result, partnering in a business relationship with VisionWeb became an important priority, and about nine months ago, we started new discussions with them. “As part of our exploration, I met with frame, lens and contact-lens suppliers as well as practice-management companies to determine what’s happening today with online ordering. Through one-on-ones with industry leaders, it was clear there’s been a major upswing in the last year in particular. “As a buying group, we look across the ophthalmic industry and can see that what’s happening in our industry has parallels in other fields. As technology has become part of our lives, online ordering and technology reduces costs, increases net income from operations and allows ECPs’ staff and themselves to be open to new opportunities.” Mallinger said VWI has been working on a pilot project with VisionWeb for the last few months and is testing in a target market now. The group intends to roll out the program to its members in the first and second quarters of 2008. -- Cathy Ciccolella, Senior Editor Vision Monday Volume Number: 21:14 Issue 12/17/07
VisionWeb Honors 2007 Labs of the Year “This year’s Lab of the Year honorees are among our most savvy partners for promoting efficiency and automation in the practice and in the lab,” said Mike O’Malley, COO and CFO, VisionWeb. “We are proud to honor these industry leaders who utilize VisionWeb’s technology to increase their efficiency and realize true cost-savings with every electronic order they receive from VisionWeb.” To determine the honorees, VisionWeb measured each lab’s ability to convert their customers’ orders from the phone, fax or other methods, and to retain and grow their customers’ VisionWeb usage. Votes received from VisionWeb members were also incorporated into the final calculations. Vision Monday VMAIL: Issue: 11/27//07
VisionWeb Expands Order Processing Capabilities Previously, VisionWeb’s Open Network Exchange (O.N.E.) functionality enabled labs using Optifacts to receive inbound orders only, from eyecare providers and labs using other VisionWeb-connected lab management systems. Now with the new functionality, labs can send outbound orders electronically through VisionWeb O.N.E. to labs using any lab management system connected with VisionWeb. “The new VisionWeb O.N.E. functionality will result in more efficient order routing and fully automate the electronic order processing among laboratories using Optifacts Software,” said Mike O’Malley, COO and CFO for VisionWeb. Steve Morris, president of Optifacts said, “This is a huge step towards achieving unrestricted business-to-business order routing among all labs. The potential benefit for Optifacts labs is significant as this leading-edge technology comes online.” Vision Monday VMAIL: Issue: 11/16/07
VisionWeb Unveils New Services, Training Celebrating its fifth anniversary this year, Internet portal VisionWeb recently unveiled a new electronic remittance advice (ERA) management service designed to allow its members to manage electronic remittance advice from their insurance payers, a coding consulting service developed to help eyecare practices with their coding processes and billing departments, and an online training program covering its services. The expansions to VisionWeb’s offering to users were announced during International Vision Expo West. VisionWeb’s new ERA service automatically interprets remittance information from payers and delivers it electronically to ECPs in place of paper explanations of benefits (EOBs). Search options allow them to search and sort remittance information by provider, payer, date range, check number or payment method; claims summaries provide information on and reasons for adjustments, denials or payment reductions. The ERA management service is available by subscription as an add-on to VisionWeb’s monthly insurance transaction-processing service or as a stand-alone service. Mike O’Malley, VisionWeb’s chief operating officer, said the new ERA management service “allows us to offer a more comprehensive solution to eyecare providers for managing the processes and cash flows involved with insurance processing.”
Also new from VisionWeb is a coding consultant service, available on a contractual basis to help eyecare practices identify areas of opportunity for improved claim reimbursement rates and cash flow. The basic coding consultant service includes an evaluation of current billing techniques, recommendations for improvement, and training/education as needed. “Insurance coding and reimbursement has historically been challenging for many practices. Our goal is to provide practices with the insight and proper knowledge to effectively manage this vital part of their businesses,” said Jeff Saddington, president and chief executive officer of VisionWeb. The new VisionWeb online training sessions, launced in mid-August, are conducted live on the Internet by company representatives. Participants get training, tips and shortcuts on VisionWeb’s spectacle lens, contact lens and frame-ordering and insurance transaction-processing services, and have access to a recording of the training session plus downloadable guides for later reference or additional staff training. The free sessions, open to all ECPs, are available at various times during the day, several days each month. Vision Monday Volume Number: 21:12 Issue: 10/22/07 Optivision and VisionWeb Offer Lab Integration This integration will allow labs utilizing Optivision software to receive electronic orders directly into their production process through Vision Web's online ECP ordering service, virtually eliminating delays associated with traditional ordering methods. VisionWeb, 800-874-6601, visionweb.com.
Excerpt From E-Tech New Product Gallery, Vision Care Product News: September 2007 VisionWeb and Carl Zeiss Vision Partner for Electronic Ordering Vision Monday Lab Advisor Newsletter: Issue: August 2007 Your entire practice can manage information electronically from the time new patients provide their history to the moment you order from the lab. The future is now for the paperless office as eyecare professionals (ECPs) continue streamlining their practices by maintaining their records electronically rather than manually. The benefits to converting from printed documents to electronic ones are numerous, and as ECPs move an increasing amount of their records in this direction, they continue to enjoy more and more of these benefits. The paperless practice begins when new patients pre-register via the Internet before their first visit rather than hurriedly completing a form attached to a clipboard in the waiting room. The no-paper route continues when their eyewear is ordered electronically after all of the digital data gathered during their visit is compiled and sent over the Web to the optical lab. Benefits of Going Paperless Other benefits include more efficient use of office space and improved record keeping. Because the need for large quantities of paper files and supplies is eliminated, valuable office space can be used for activities that better serve to generate revenue. In addition, an increase in automation and subsequent reduction in human error result in more accurate records and coding compliance that ensure reduced billing errors and fewer claim denials. Finally, improved communication with optical labs leads to a reduction in redos. Multiple Components Diagnostic instruments can gather a patient’s measurements numerically along with digital images; they can then both be uploaded to software for future reference. Frame and lens data can be combined with a patient’s personal optical statistics and then electronically communicated to an optical lab to ensure accurate finishing of his eyewear. And all of this data can be accessed in-office or remotely to enable the doctor as well as the patient to remain informed with the most up-to-date and accurate information with just a click of a mouse. Sources of Software The New But Old Way Electronic Diagnostics The wide range of instruments capable of integrating directly with your EMR database include digital lens inspection systems, autorefactors/keratometers, computerized refraction systems, perimeters, autolensmeters, corneal topographers, and wavefront analysis. Companies manufacturing and distributing instruments such as these include Topcon Medical Systems, Carl Zeiss Meditec, Canon Medical Systems, Haag-Streit USA, Heidelberg Engineering, Optos, and Vision Medical Instruments, Inc. In some cases, communication is limited between certain diagnostic instruments and specific EMR programs. For example, currently the Eagle Eye 3000 Pachymeter by Vision Medical Instruments is the only pachymeter compatible with Exam-WRITER. This self-calibrating, high-precision pachymeter features 1⁄4-micron resolution and ±1 micron repeatability that eliminates the need for averaging. By the third quarter of this year, this pachymeter will also be compatible with My Vision Express. First Insight’s maximEyes program is compatible with the diagnostic instruments from Marco, Topcon, Zeiss Meditec, and Veatch Ophthalmic Instruments. Digital Imagery In May, Optos released the latest version of its proprietary software—V2® Vantage, designed to assist healthcare practitioners in capturing and reviewing the Optomap Retinal Exam. A new capability known as ResMax™ increases the image resolution of the macula and optic nerve, and 3D Wrap™ allows the practitioner to create a three-dimensional representation of the human eye on to which the patient’s Optomap Retinal Exam is projected. Topcon offers an image management system known as EyeRoute™ that integrates images and reports from all types of ophthalmic instruments into a single, secure digital environment that is accessible via any Web browser. EyeRoute allows you to view, organize, edit, and transport data and images as you manage patient care and supports a wide range of instruments from many manufacturers, including fundus cameras, slit lamps, OCT, ultrasound, visual fields, and more. PMS Plus All of these data are captured electronically directly from the PMS database by the CyberEYES unit, combined with its own measurements such as pupillary distance and seg height, and com-piled to generate the final frame and lens order. Because CyberEYES interfaces directly with the optical lab, it can electronically transmit a text-based e-mail with all of the necessary frame and lens data to the lab, all without the need for a paper order. In the third quarter of this year, CyberImaging intends to convert this process to an xml format so the lab’s system can directly interpret this information, thereby eliminating the need to cut and paste the text-based e-mail. While many of CyberEYES newer capabilities are due to its ability to access the information in an ECP’s practice management system, this conduit of information actually flows both ways. The information gathered by the CyberEYES device can also be used to populate some of the PMS fields as well. For example, after patients use this digital dispensing system to select lens materials and treatments, then that information can be loaded into the practice management system. An office’s PMS program is another way of compiling all the patient’s data, measurements, and frame and lens choices for Internet transmission to the optical lab. For example, First Insight’s online optical lab network paradEyes.com includes a built-in interface with VisionWeb.com where you can place and track secure online lens orders with Essilor Laboratories of America from within the maximEyes program. These days everything from the time a new patient enters background information via the Inter-net through the digital diagnosis made by computerized instrumentation to the final order sent to the optical lab, there is no need to use paper anymore because all of this information is gathered and stored electronically. Now what are you going to do with all those old file cabinets? -- John Sailer, Senior Editor, Vision Care Product News Vision Care Product News: July 2007
Small Labs Do More with Optifacts O2 This new Web-based lab management software gives labs processing under 100 jobs a day a competitive edge over larger labs. It can be difficult for smaller wholesale labs to compete with larger ones capable of surfacing hundreds of jobs a day. For example, only large optical labs can afford the cost of lab management software. Now even small optical laboratories can breathe easier with the release of Optifacts, Inc. Web-enabled Optifacts O2. With this new program, labs processing between five and 100 jobs per day can enjoy a cost-effective way to utilize powerful lab software just like the big guys. Total Control With all these abilities, you can easily manage your small lab business using software instead of having the software tell you what to do, as is sometimes the case with computerized laboratories. Powered by the Internet Seamless Interfacing Data Entry and Retrieval Updates and Training Web-Based With O2, smaller labs will now be able to provide excellent lens processing, utilize modern conveniences, and integrate with other Web services. Regardless of the number of jobs surfaced daily, Optifacts O2 provides the speed and accuracy labs of all sizes want and deserve. This is indeed great news for smaller optical labs that are struggling to compete with larger labs. Debra R. White is a former opticianry professor. She is currently an optical consultant, lecturer, and writer. -- Debra R. White, MSEd, ABOM, FCLSA
VisionWeb, Vision West Partner to Promote Online Program VWI members are encouraged to take advantage of VisionWeb’s services to help automate ordering eyecare products to their VWI-approved suppliers. “VisionWeb is excited to collaborate with VWI on this campaign to promote online ordering,” said Jeff Saddington, president, and CEO for VisionWeb. “VWI offers many benefits to its members, and we are proud that our ordering services are now part of that offering. We look forward to building a long and positive relationship with VWI and its members, many of whom are already using VisionWeb’s services in one form or another.” Ordering on VisionWeb is free for eyecare providers and VWI members will continue to receive their buying group discounts when they order to their suppliers through VisionWeb. VisionWeb operates independently and does not interfere with pricing relationships that eyecare providers may have with their suppliers. Additionally, VWI orders placed on VisionWeb will contribute to royalties earned by AOA state affiliates participating in VisionWeb’s AOA Royalty Program. VWI members are encouraged to contact their AOA state affiliate executive director to find out if their state participates in the program. “The relationship formed today with VisionWeb assures a long-term business strategy on the part of both companies to create a win for both entities, all VWI member accounts, state associations endorsing VWI, and the American Optometric Association,” said Joseph C. Mallinger, OD, MBA, FAAO, and president of VWI. “VWI strives continuously to bring the very best technology to our member accounts.” VWI and VisionWeb will launch their first promotion to VWI members later this summer. Accounts will receive incentives for ordering to multiple VWI-approved suppliers using VisionWeb’s ordering service or integrated practice management systems. Vision West Inc. (VWI), headquartered in Oceanside, Calif., is a leading purchasing group. The company is officially endorsed as the preferred buying group of the California Optometric Association, as well as state associations in Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, New York, and other vision care groups in the U.S. Vision Monday VMAIL: Issue: 07/23/07
VisionWeb, Optivision Partner for Electronic Lab Integration Additionally, Optivision labs may send orders electronically to other VisionWeb laboratories, regardless of the lab software the receiving laboratory is running, in an automated electronic protocol. Said David Wedwick, president of Optivision, “Fully electronic order-processing is a service we have been proud to offer our lab customers for years, and we are very pleased that orders from VisionWeb can now be managed and processed with increased accuracy and efficiency.” Mike O’Malley, VisionWeb’s vice president of business development, commented, “We’re continuing to add efficiencies to every aspect of the spectacle lens ordering and procurement process.” CSC Laboratories in Watsonville, Calif., was the first Optivision lab to be electronically connected through the VisionWeb integration with Optivision. Additional Optivision labs will follow in the near future, according to the two companies. Vision Monday VMAIL: Issue: 06/18/07
VM Special Report: The Power of 10--Breakthrough Products, Technologies and Trends: Power of 10: E-Buying From vendors' own Internet-based buying programs through the expansion of centralized, neutral digital portals such as VisionWeb and Vision Service Plan's Eyefinity, retailers and ECPs can now access virtually the industry's entire product spectrum with a few taps on their keyboards. VisionWeb, launched in 2000 as an independent consortium of leading industry players, began accepting online orders in 2002 after a year of test-marketing. Eyefinity debuted its eBuy online ordering for both frames and contact lenses in 2001. Both companies offered the logical extension to the dedicated electronic-ordering ability suppliers had offered since the mid-1990s, providing access to vendors’ full catalogs for one-stop shopping as well as a way of tracking their ordering history plus the ability to instantly research the status of current orders. In general, all this e-technology has ended the hassle of spending hours on hold on the telephone waiting to find out if an order has been shipped or whether a hot-selling frame is on back-order. It has also simplified inventory control, in many cases allowing dispensers to maintain an "instant re-order" capability by linking their point-of-sale system to their warehouse or other frame- or lens-stocking area, so they can immediately re-order a frame once it sells. The digital era has provoked a revolution in buying that will only get more sophisticated.
Optical Lab Orders Enter Electronic Age
I started in the optical industry in 1996, and at that time optical lab orders were all hand written on carbon copies. The orders were then faxed to the lab when the optician completed the paperwork. This was a time intensive process that delayed the production of our laboratory orders. Handwriting issues also resulted in errors when fabricating optical orders. Luckily, times changed, and for several years now we have been completely electronic. The optician enters the information into the computer at the time of the order with the patient. The information is then transported into VisionWeb where the optician can choose the material, and make other specifications to the order. Once the optician has completed the order it is automatically sent directly to our lab. This process also eliminates the need to have someone at the lab enter the pertinent information into the computer. The time that has been saved from not having to write everything out has been tremendous. The new electronic age has helped in increasing our efficiency and reduced the patient’s wait time for their new eyewear. Ordering Online Avoids Errors
Errors, errors, errors, how can they be avoided. Thank goodness for Internet ordering. Our orders can now be confirmed in a clear concise way. Tracking of orders is quick and simple. No more waiting on hold for customer service. It’s definitely helped our business and we have minimized errors. Of course, errors do happen even on the Internet but much less frequently. The icing on the cake is great archiving of all our orders as well. I can’t imagine anyone not ordering online. It’s the only way to go. Here’s an example of how Internet ordering has helped our business: I faxed a written order for lenses to my surfacing lab. It's an order for premium progressives in 1.67 transitions with premium A.R. It takes about 10 days to receive the order and the patient is anxiously awaiting the completion of his glasses since of course he lost his one and only pair. My patient Mr. Roberts called me this morning to check on the status of his order. His lenses had still not arrived when he called so I put him on hold while I made a quick call to the Lab. The lenses shipped yesterday, you'll have them today they said. Sure enough one hour later my courier got to the office and delivered the package. I quickly opened the box and there they were Mr. Roberts’s lenses just waiting to be edged, drilled, polished and then mounted. How many times do we get in a hurry and commit bonehead errors? How many times does our surfacing lab tech’s get in a hurry and commit them as well? Well here's the error, being in such a hurry to get the job done we sometimes put a lens in the edger before verifying its power. Mr. Roberts high-end job took about 30 to 40 minutes to complete from start to finish. Only to find out that the Rx is off. The -0.75 was mistaken for -0.25. I was not finished as I thought. I was only just starting at square one. I wasted my time and now I must re-order lenses. I also have to deal with what’s going be one unhappy patient. This type of scenario has repeated itself many times throughout the years. These errors are costly. They result in lost time, money and sometimes valuable patients. --Cathy Ciccolella Vision Monday Special Report VMAIL: Issue: 05/21//07
VisionWeb Launches Redesigned Web Site The redesigned Web site, www.visionweb.com, provides direct access to VisionWeb’s services and information for eyecare providers, ophthalmic suppliers and consumers. It features more consistent navigation and has a more appealing design, according to Jeff Saddington, VisionWeb’s president and CEO. “This signals a whole new curve change for us,” said Saddington. “The new site delivers a lot of new connectivity. It’s a great new platform for advertisers and suppliers.” In other VisionWeb news, Saddington said spectacle lens ordering integrations with OD Professional (EMRlogic Systems), VersaSuite PM (VersaSuite Integrated Healthcare Solutions) and Computerized Optical System--COS (OfficeMate Software Solutions) are complete and customers of these systems can begin ordering from suppliers in the VisionWeb network. He also noted that users of First Insight’s MaximEyes v6.1 practice management software can now place and track the status of spectacle lens orders to and from the Essilor Laboratories of America network using VisionWeb technology. Vision Monday VMAIL: Issue: 04/16/0
Optical Web Portals: One-Stop Shopping Optical Web sites not only facilitate finding and buying eyecare products and services, but also reduce errors and save time and money. With the dramatic growth of computers at home and in the workplace, it was only a matter of time before Americans tapped into the convenience of Internet shopping. Online ordering has indeed become so popular that the U.S. Department of Commerce reports that 2006 first quarter online sales reached $19.2 billion, an increase of 23.8% from the first quarter of the previous year. Even with all this online purchasing growth, many eyecare practices have not yet taken advantage of this method of finding and buying products and services. The easiest way to do this is to use an optical portal Web site. Portals act like one-stop-shopping sites that offer almost everything an office needs through a single site such as frames, lenses, processing and tracking insurance claims, and access to laboratories. Eyecare professionals (ECPs) who take advantage of the services offered by these Web sites enjoy the benefits of reduced errors, better customer service, ease of ordering, and price savings. If you're one of those ECPs not yet using the Internet for business-to-business operations, here are four Web portals worth exploring. E-dr. Another service provided by e-dr. is free shipping directly to ECPs' offices for contact lens orders over $75; no minimum purchase is required. The site also has a free extensive soft contact lens database where registered users can check powers, colors, or parameters. Eyefinity With eBuy, for example, ECPs can order frames and contact lenses in one place and bundle orders to save on shipping. Reorder-Contacts enables patients to order contact lenses online through their doctor, while the doctor controls the orders and sets the pricing. eClaim reduces insurance claim rejections and allows offices to file and track claims electronically with Aetna, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and Medicaid, for example. Eyefinity's eLab can be used to create, track, and manage lab orders for all private pay patients. First Insight Thousands of eyecare practices throughout the U.S. and Canada use MaximEyes, one of the most complete and sophisticated practice management systems available. New features include an Rx Calculator, which assigns correct VCodes for prescriptions entered in a lens order. The calculator also prices lenses based on their prescription powers. Spectacle lens orders can be sent to a lab with an easier, quicker built-in interface to ParadEyes.com. This site is designed to provide ECPs with a simple link to all their ophthalmic products, services, and resources. It streamlines order accuracy and speeds turnaround time, too. The Web site also integrates with practice management systems, thereby eliminating the need to re-key patient information that reduces the potential for ordering and input errors. First Insight's Optometry.net enables ECPs to create their own professional Web sites within minutes. This way, practitioners can promote their practices to new and existing patients while enabling them to request appointments, complete online welcome forms, reorder products, and access educational materials. Labs Benefit, Too VisionWeb This company is not a buying group nor does it interfere with pricing relationships. Instead, VisionWeb offers ECPs simple and convenient services that are easily integrated into their daily business processes. VisionWeb's online product ordering service is free to eyecare practices. With it, ECPs can place orders online to hundreds of laboratories and suppliers for contact lenses, spectacle lenses, and frames. The service also provides online order tracking and archiving. An online insurance claim processing service is available by subscription and can be customized to the size of each ECP's business. VisionWeb's online insurance claim processing service processes online insurance transactions with Medicare, Medicaid, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and hundreds of commercial payers. ECPs will also find an easy-to-use interface for entering and submitting claim information to payers online. The positive momentum of online optical commerce suggests that the Internet is a growing player in the optical industry. If you have yet to try it, it is time to get online and surf the Web of optical portals. An easier future has arrived. Randall L. Smith is the Opticianry Program Director at Baker College in Jackson, MI. -- Randall L. Smith, MEd, ABOM Vision Care Product News: February 2007 |
