Posted on May 12, 2015

QualSight, An Additional Source of LASIK Patients

LASIK eye surgery remains one of the most popular elective surgeries in America. Thanks to twenty years’ worth of experience and technological enhancements, today’s LASIK surgeons consistently achieve excellent results. From the baby boomers with presbyopia to young adults, LASIK surgery appeals to a wide variety of patients who view the procedure as a safe and convenient way to correct their vision correction problems.

Targeting Patients

For more LASIK practices, targeting and educating patients can prove challenging, especially with today’s savvy internet shoppers who search for discounted surgery deals on social media and coupon websites. These potential patients look for reviews of surgeons on websites such as Yelp, and often base their views of a practice on this information alone.

To attract these cost-conscious LASIK patients, some practices have resorted to participating in Groupon or Living Social deals, which are often less profitable to a practice than one would anticipate. Specifically, although these discount programs may generate business, they often attract difficult patients whose only goal is to find the lowest LASIK surgery price.

Many prospective LASIK patients are now finding affordable LASIK surgery prices through their employers or health insurance discount plans. Patients who use these value-added insurance programs can save substantial amounts of money on the LASIK surgery cost. For a LASIK practice, these programs offer an opportunity for incremental revenue without adding advertising, marketing, or significant staffing costs. Moreover, these patients help to keep practices’ appointment books full without trumpeting the discount to the rest of the patient base.

Practices may choose to participate in several different value-added programs, which can help increase the number of appointments and procedures. One such program is QualSight LASIK, the largest nationwide LASIK insurance value-added program. What differentiates QualSight from other programs with similar business models is that it operates an open network composed of independent surgeons not linked to a corporate parent, whose primary goal is to drive patients to their corporate centers.

Conclusion

With the changing landscape of the LASIK marketplace, only practices that maintain significant and regular volumes of LASIK patients will survive. Due to the new FSA restrictions, expansion of social media, and coupon websites, independent private practices may not be able to succeed with aggressive marketing tactics, but they can still maintain a healthy procedural volume by participating in value-added programs.