VisionMonday's dba for October 29, 2012

October 29, 2012

In This Edition

Eye-trepreneurs

dba q&a

Third Party System

In Your Employ

dataPoint

Clarkson's Growth Shows No Signs of Slowing

ELLISVILLE, Mo.—At 33 years of age, Clarkson Eyecare is in the midst of a growth spurt but doesn't seem to be experiencing any growing pains.

Headquartered here and centered around the St. Louis region, the optical chain opened its 57th location in October of 2012 and plans to add even more locations throughout 2013.

Clarkson is currently at work on three new locations and will have as many as six new locations by the end of next year. Some of this continued growth represents new launches while some is through purchases or mergers of other eyecare providers. There have even been some instances where another provider has come to Clarkson and asked to merge.

The Pros and Cons of Implementing EMR

The financial incentives provided by the HITECH Act encouraged many eyecare professionals to implement the use of electronic medical records (EMR) in their practices.

To understand both the pros and cons of doing so, the following ECPs told dba what challenges and benefits they've experienced since they started using EMR: Mark D. Wade, OD, of Crown Vision Center; David H. Hettler, OD, of Drs. May & Hettler; Alan Ulsifer, OD, of FYidoctors; and Shannon Olsson, of Clarkson Eyecare.

What's the Status of Each State's Health Care Exchange?

Update: As of December 14, 2012, this is how each state has decided to Implement Their "Affordable Insurance Exchanges."

Now that the Supreme Court has determined that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) is constitutional, many states are in the midst of establishing exchanges through which individuals and small businesses with up to 50 full-time employees will be able to purchase health insurance. Federal law mandates that these exchanges must be certified and operational by Jan. 1, 2014.

A total of 34 states, and the District of Columbia, have either already established an exchange (Calif., Colo., Conn., D.C., Hawaii, Ky., Md., Mass., Nev., N.Y., Ore., R.I., Utah, Vt., Wash., W.Va.), are planning to create an exchange in partnership with the federal government (Ark., Del., Ill.) or are studying their options (Ala., Ariz., Idaho, Ind., Iowa, Mich., Minn., Miss., Mont., Neb., N.J., N.M., N.C., Pa., Tenn., Va.).

Of the remaining 16 states, eight have taken no significant activity toward creating an exchange (Ga., Kan., Mo., N.D., Ohio, Okla., Wis., Wyo.), while eight other states have already decided not to create an exchange (Alaska, Fla., La., Maine, N.H., S.C., S.D., Texas), in which case theirs will be managed by the federal government.

Pre-Test to Hire the Best

If you've often thought that the traditional technique of posting advertisements and sifting through stacks of resumes to find just the right employee seems outdated, you're probably onto something. Eye Care Associates thought the same thing, so the 24-office optical chain based in Raleigh, N.C., worked with Dr. Adam Grant, who at the time was a professor at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, to study the chain's hiring practices.

GeoMetrics Report – U.S. Optical Market

The U.S. optical market consists of over 39,000 locations dispensing eyeglasses generating revenues of almost $34 billion. The GeoMetrics Report derived from Jobson Optical Research’s January 2012 Census database indicates how those statistics are divided up among independents, conventional chains, mass merchandisers, department stores and wholesale clubs.

John Sailer, Senior Editor

Send us news about your mid-size regional optical chain, provide us with subjects and/or questions for a future dba q&a or let us know what topics you'd like to see covered. Contact dba's Editor John Sailer at jsailer@jobson.com.

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