- Hello, I would like to welcome you
to the Laramy-K Optician Works training center,
where today we are gonna take the micro view
of working with vision plans,
and talk about burritos.
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(upbeat Latin music)
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Last week we did the big picture overview
of working with vision care plans.
This week we are looking at the details,
the micro, the smaller picture, if you will.
A lot of this is not going to make sense, okay?
Bear with me for a second.
Until you start working with this stuff on a regular basis,
it's a little abstract.
Watch, listen, and I guarantee
that about three months into your working job as an optician
a little light bulb's gonna go on
and you're gonna say, "Oh, that's what he meant.
"Now I understand."
Trust me, watch these, listen,
get a leg up on all this stuff so when you start working,
it comes a whole lot easier.
Basic preliminary rules for working with vision plans.
And lot of you're gonna be going
when I read these off, "Well, duh," right?
Again, trust me, you will understand
when you start doing this,
why I am bothering to go into this.
The customer must actually have a vision plan.
People lie, welcome to the world of retail.
People lie.
No, no, I've got so-and-so.
You call up the employer and they say, "No,
"that person was terminated two weeks ago now."
It happens.
You must be able to access the plan.
You go online or you call, whatever that takes.
That may be a social security number,
that may be an employee number.
If the customer is fighting you every inch of the way
and saying, "Oh, it must be, no, oh, I can't give you that."
Right, go back to one, they actually have to have a plan.
If they have a plan, that plan must be active for the goods
and or services that they're requesting.
It's called a rollover.
And every single plan is different
and it is often different for frame, lens,
contacts and exam.
There is nothing to say if they call up and say,
"I've got this."
You can prove they have it and they want an exam
that they actually have that benefit available.
Some rollover annual, some rollover from time of last exam,
some are yearly, some are every other year.
You never know so you have to have that in front of you.
You must be able to view,
I always like to to print because I'm old,
member benefits page.
Now we're gonna talk about this a whole lot more
because the member benefits page is everything.
That is your proof that they have the coverage,
you can assign it and you will get paid for it.
This is how you price things up.
You cannot, you will not take someone's word for it.
And I don't care,
the customer can say, their employer can tell you,
the vision care plan company can tell you.
Unless you have an authorization number
and a member benefits page,
in your mind this person does not have a vision plan.
No proof, no discounted services.
Don't say I didn't warn you, my favorite saying.
Now there's nothing to say that person couldn't come in
and get glasses and contacts, and a lens, and an exam,
pay full price, sure, absolutely.
But do not ever start getting involved
with a vision care plan discounting anything
until you have proof.
There we go, that was the word I was looking for.
A few more things that you absolutely,
positively must understand when working with vision plans,
it ain't rainbows and unicorns.
Paperwork, insurance, vision plans.
If you're looking at the end of the year tally
for a busy practice,
you are talking about millions of dollars.
The insurance companies, the vision plan companies
send people into the store
and actually do physical and financial audits.
That is their right.
People go bankrupt if they don't handle insurance correctly.
People go to jail if they don't handle insurance correctly.
Insurance, even the vision care plan stuff,
it must be taken seriously.
If you start somewhere new and you are kinda picking up
that half the people don't know
how to price up a job correctly,
and there's stacks of paperwork back in the corner,
and there are mysterious envelopes
coming in from all the different insurance companies.
You might wanna start thinking
about getting the heck out of there,
because they're either going to jail
or they're gonna go bankrupt.
And I'm not exaggerating here.
So be careful and keep your eyes open for that kinda thing.
After you've been there for a couple of months,
you're starting to understand this stuff,
we'll ask to understand it better.
In the good places,
there is going to be an insurance person.
The person that gets the statements
and does all the balancing of the accounts.
And there's a thing called chargebacks.
What you see is not what the doc gets.
You may sell five, six, seven jobs every single day
for an entire month.
Customer gets up, goes up to the front desk,
gives them a credit card, 700, $800 a pop.
At the end of the month,
the vision care plan statement comes
and the doc is writing them a check back.
That's how it works, so don't get confused.
Sit down and try to understand it all.
You must know your plans in order to say no.
You're gonna see it out on social media,
everybody kids about it.
"No, that's covered in full."
The truth of the matter is no, that is not covered in full.
You must have the confidence to say it and explain it.
"No, that is not covered in full, that is,
"but what you are purchasing is, let me show you."
You have the confidence, you have that member benefits page.
You understand the products, let me show you.
Prove to them that that is not "covered in full."
It is your job as an optician
to maximize every insurance transaction.
Somewhere up above 80% of every single person
that comes into the store with a vision care plan
of any kind, you should be upselling.
You should not be aiming for whatever's covered,
right folks?
It's your job.
If a frame allowance for a plan is $180,
well then your $300 frames
should be looking pretty darn good to that customer,
and you've got to think that way
or you're not gonna survive.
If you try to help every person that comes in the door
stay at exactly at what their allowance is,
you're gonna be out of business in no time.
Know your plans well enough to say,
"You know you'll make out better getting this than that,
"you'll save much more."
And I'd mentioned this a couple of weeks ago,
it's worth mentioning once again,
watch for the I'm good, no change, folks.
Come out of the exam plain, say, "Nope, I'm good.
"Doc said no change."
And they're happy and they're ready to leave.
Then you can say, "Ho-ho, wait a minute.
"You've got the vision care plan,
"how about if I make you a nice pair of sunglasses
"for 20 bucks?
"Go pick out any frame in that row over there,
"and come back next week and I'll have 'em ready for you."
You just made yourself a nice little sale,
brought some money in.
The customer will be happy.
They'll have a beautiful new pair of sunglasses
for 20 bucks, the store will bring in some money,
win-win all the way around.
All right, in the home stretch,
the member benefits page is everything.
It is your guide on how to build a pair of glasses
for your customer with a vision plan.
Now, I say members, member,
because remember that the Vision Plan of America
may have 200 different plans even within the same company.
Management may have a different plan
than the people out on the factory floor.
So it must be the members member benefit page
in order to get this priced up correctly.
The best way for you to think about this
is an a la carte menu, because that is what it is.
Welcome to Bob's Burrito Bunker, Home of the free Burrito.
- You had me at meat tornado.
- That's right, if you walk into Bob's,
they hand you a beautiful burrito shell free.
You could walk out the door with it, no problem,
they wouldn't care.
As soon as you start building
that burrito shell into a meal,
everything that you add onto it is gonna cost you more.
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Rice, $1, beans, $1, salsa $1.
steak, $3, cheese, $1, guacamole, $1.
You get to the end of the counter,
your burrito shell,
your burrito which was "free" covered in full is now $8.
Building a pair of glasses, a lens in this case
using a vision care plan is exactly the same thing.
Yes, a basic single vision uncoated CR39 lens
with the Vision Plan of America
is completely covered in full.
Nobody on Earth wants a basic single vision,
uncoated CR39 lens, not gonna happen.
They want 1.60 at 50 bucks.
They do want the scratch warranty
in case they scratch their 1.60.
In the next year, they can replace it one time, 20 bucks.
They want a good non-glare coating
on their beautiful pair of glasses, 60 bucks.
They want an edge polish, 15 bucks.
They ain't wearing a single vision, they're 55 years old,
they need a progressive, 125 bucks.
And they want the best progressive in the entire lineup
so they're gonna do the free form, 75.
Went from 0 to $345.
Think about it that way because what is so important here
is if you miss one of these little tiny, subtle things
that 15, that 20, you'll never get that money back,
won't happen.
You've got to be careful.
You've gotta know every single little item
that builds a lens.
It will all become clearer
as you start working with the stuff, I promise.
If you are about to go to work
and you have not already done so,
hit the Optician Works website
again, amazing stuff over there.
Sharon just knocked it out of the park last year.
Thank you so much.
And I think that wraps up our insurance talk.
I'm gonna jump back in here for a moment.
You may have asked yourself, "Hey John,
"why didn't you show us an actual member benefits page?"
Optician Works has been around since 2008.
We just recently passed the 4.1 million views
on our YouTube channel,
and we generally have about a thousand people active
in the online optician training program at any given time.
Numerous times when I have been at Vision Expos,
I have made an appointment and I have sat down
with both VSP and EyeMed, and asked them to participate
to help educate and train new opticians.
They both refused.
(mouths chomping)
- Taste like chicken.
- Thank you so much for watching.
If you're watching us on Facebook,
please do give us a like.
Watching us on YouTube,
please go ahead and hit that subscribe button down there
in the corner,
and make absolutely certain that every burrito in your life
comes from Laramy-K.
I will see you again next week.
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