LASIK salaries

[drdoyle]

Hey All,

I'm interested in how much LASIK surgeons doing only LASIK 5 days a week make. I have also heard that overhead is in the range of 65 to 75%. Please tell me if thsi is true.
Please do not respond if you want to moralize. There are alot of rumours out there but I would appreciate if one could answer this questions honestly and earnestly. Thanks.

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[orbitsurgMD]

Hey All,

I'm interested in how much LASIK surgeons doing only LASIK 5 days a week make. I have also heard that overhead is in the range of 65 to 75%. Please tell me if thsi is true.
Please do not respond if you want to moralize. There are alot of rumours out there but I would appreciate if one could answer this questions honestly and earnestly. Thanks.

This is a difficult time to be a LASIK surgeon doing nothing but LASIK 5 days a week.

There is significant contraction in this highly-elective and income-sensitive business. The major chains have been closing locations and dismissing both professional and non-professional staff. Some are in Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. "Salaries" that exist right now are most likely contract legacies from before 2008 and the onset of the recession (that is supposedly over.) Telling you someone has a $250,000 salary contract with bonuses would be meaningless. A meaningful answer to you will be just about impossible, since there are very few places hiring.

As for the operations of the practice, the positive gain of a cash-based prepayment revenue stream is contrasted to the high cost of facilities and staffing (including optometrists and ophthalmologists), the very high volume of advertising and the practice of discounting, both direct to patients and to third-party financing entities that provide medical consumer credit, which many LASIK centers also use. I would be surprised if the overhead was only 75% in some areas. Even TLC, the top-of-the-pile chain has had a rough go of it. In my area, they are closing down operations and firing staff. And the tarnished image of their spokesman Tiger Woods isn't bringing in the business like it once did.

 

[KHE]

This is a difficult time to be a LASIK surgeon doing nothing but LASIK 5 days a week.

There is significant contraction in this highly-elective and income-sensitive business. The major chains have been closing locations and dismissing both professional and non-professional staff. Some are in Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. "Salaries" that exist right now are most likely contract legacies from before 2008 and the onset of the recession (that is supposedly over.) Telling you someone has a $250,000 salary contract with bonuses would be meaningless. A meaningful answer to you will be just about impossible, since there are very few places hiring.

As for the operations of the practice, the positive gain of a cash-based prepayment revenue stream is contrasted to the high cost of facilities and staffing (including optometrists and ophthalmologists), the very high volume of advertising and the practice of discounting, both direct to patients and to third-party financing entities that provide medical consumer credit, which many LASIK centers also use. I would be surprised if the overhead was only 75% in some areas. Even TLC, the top-of-the-pile chain has had a rough go of it. In my area, they are closing down operations and firing staff. And the tarnished image of their spokesman Tiger Woods isn't bringing in the business like it once did.

When I was first out of school, I was the clinic director for TLC in Las Vegas. I would point out a couple of things:

Like many companies, TLC struggled and recently declared bankruptcy I believe for a number of reasons, largely related to a poorly structured business model. Namely, they employed a number of people in their corporate operations who really had no clue about health care, eye surgery, patient psychology or anything like that. Interestingly enough, I would say that from a clinical standpoint they consistently made it a top priority to employ top surgeons and adopted a conservative patient selection policy. They certainly were not like those $299 per eye, let's do it on everyone and their dog places.

In essence, they used "The Gap" marketing principles on a "Ritz Carlton" type of business. Obviously it failed.

As far as Tiger goes, I actually met him when I was a student in New York City and he came to the center there for one of his follow up visits. I recall him being a very nice guy, though he came with a very large entourage. Almost like a rapper. lol.

I also think that Tiger hasn't brought a single patient to TLC in about 6 years. I think that his recent troubles have had no impact on TLC whatsoever.