What Might Have Been…

The Opportunity Cost of Choosing Not to Reach Out to Referring Doctors

Your practice is doing OK.  In fact, it’s doing pretty well.

But…

Do you ever have this nagging sense that you could be doing more?  That you’re leaving something on the table?  Or have you looked around and noticed that your competitor’s growth seems to be outpacing yours?

What is that about?

No matter where you stand on the idea of Collaborative Care, the largest practices in any given market are routinely the ones who reach out to referring doctors in their community.

So let’s talk about why that might be…

According to the American Optometric Association, 85%* of routine eye exams are performed by an Optometrist.  If 85% of patients are already being seen in an OD office, does it make sense to continue to spend precious marketing dollars competing for the same routine eye exams? 

Instead, why not partner with your local OD’s to take exceptional care of their surgical patients?

Let’s look at it this way…

If a routine eye exam brings in around $190** per exam, and a cataract procedure averages a net revenue of around $1400*** per surgery, that’s $9,500 for 50 routine eye exams or $14,000 for simply 10 surgical procedures.

And at 2 eyes each, 10 surgeries is the equivalent of only 5 patient referrals.

By partnering with the Optometrists in your area, you have the potential to increase your profit margin while decreasing your work load.  

Let me say that again…

You have the potential to increase your profit margin while decreasing your work load.

Imagine finally being able to schedule the time to take your family on that exotic vacation, do yoga or even schedule more surgeries if you like.

I recently worked with a practice that had never reached out to physicians in their area before and did not have existing relationships with ODs in their community.  They hired a rock star liaison who brought in 90 new referrals in 90 days. (learn more about hiring a rock star liaison here)

So what could that mean for your practice?

Let’s be conservative… Say only 50% of those patients converted to consults and only 50% of those consults converted to surgeries.

That comes out to about 22 patients or 44 surgery eyes.  

At $1400 per surgery, that’s $61,600 in additional revenue for the practice.  

Not too shabby for 90 days in.  

And that’s being conservative!

This scenario is not that uncommon.  I’ve seen practices grow their top and bottom lines by hundreds of thousands and into the millions of dollars within months of launching a referral network program.

Is it easy to build a Referral Network? 

No.  Like all practice development, it requires focused effort, investment, and a solid system.

Is it worth it? 

Yes.  A hundred times yes.

Just ask your large competitor down the street.

*https://www.warbyparker.com/learn/optometrist-vs-ophthalmologist
**https://pocketsense.com/the-average-cost-of-an-eye-exam-without-insurance-12393783.html
***https://www.beckersasc.com/benchmarking/31-statistics-and-benchmarks-for-ophthalmology-ascs.html