i agree about third party payers. but thats a separate issue. optometry is a growing profession, whether people want to admit. we are growing towards the medical side by the increasing number of practitioners treating glaucoma. also by a lot of the states pushing for lasers.
Respectfully Jake, I think you're making a serious mistake looking at it that way. There is no current demand for optometrists to be performing laser surgery. The number of patients that I see in a given month who would benefit from YAGs, PIs, or who ask about LASIK is no where near enough to justify the cost of having a laser in the office, and mine is a 3 doctor practice. It's just not what optometrists do.
you also have to consider the number of states who pushed for and got Botox and Latisse.
When Latisse came out, I had about 5 patients ask about it in the first week. Since then, nothing. The few that I have recommended it to have not filled it because the cost is obsene. Botox, same thing. It's just not what ODs do. If you wanted Botox, WHY would you see an OD?
our profession is growing but there is something we don't need. we don't need a bunch of griping, negative, pessimistic docs on here discouraging students from going into this great profession which repeatedly tops the Top 10 Professions according to USA Today (or US News and World Reports...can't remember which). the average salary for optometry has actually gone up over the years according to the AOA optometric salary study.
Keep in mind that AOA only considers those who are AOA members and more than half of optometrists are NOT AOA members. If you're struggling, chances are low that you're going to shell out two grand a year for AOA membership so understand that AOA data is going to be particularly skewed.
look at the positive things in this profession instead of dwelling on the negatives. if you don't like optometry, quit. and also quit complaining.
The positive is that at the end of the day, I make good money helping people see better. I own my own practice. I work basically as much or as little as I want.
The negative is that it is definately getting harder and harder to maintain. As providers, we get squeezed from patients and from third party payers. We essentially have no recourse. We can't just "raise fees" because we are limited to what third party payors will pay us. On some level, we actually have it BETTER than other providers because we DO sell glasses and contacts but contact lenses is pretty much a done deal....there's essentially zero margin there and glasses are rapidly heading down that road.
For me, there's more negative than that but I'll limit this dicussion to the just the economic end of it.
I don't think too many people really investigate well before entering school. Like you, they read the AOA statistics and read US News and World Report and think "HEY! I'll be an EYE DOCTOR! COOL!"
Well, it ain't quite that simple. It's pretty easy to make "ok" money in this field. It's really hard to make "good" money and it's getting harder and harder.
