TSO Network Update - March 2018

March 2018 l 11 Practice Management Competitor Review: Hubble Contacts While watching my home town team win the 2017 World Series, I continued to see an advertisement for Hubble Contact lenses. The ad was blatantly directed towards Millennials with two young men stating “we got tired of over paying for our contacts so we started our own contact lens company”. While meeting with one of the TSO Doctors in my region we began discussing Hubble. We pulled up their site online. I began to fill out the online order form. They requested my prescription and offered a choice in powers from +12 to -12 in quarter diopter steps for the right and left eyes. I put in a fake Rx of -1.00 OU. The site then asked for my Doctors name. Quite to the surprise of the Doctor sitting next to me, he was listed as a Hubble Doctor. I selected him as the provider of my examination. I then check out and my credit card was billed $3 for shipping of my trial contacts. The Doctor and I agreed to be on the lookout for any Fax, Email or phone request for my prescription, none came. Approximately one week later I received a box at the corporate office from Hubble. 15 Pair of daily contact were enclosed. The lenses were branded Hubble. I was informed that in two weeks when my trail lenses were expended my subscription would begin. I would receive 30 pair monthly and my credit card would be billed $30. I had not provided them with any Doctor’s prescription, nor had they contacted the Doctor I listed. Two weeks later I called them and cancelled my subscription. They asked why I was cancelling and I replied “they hurt my eye and my vision was not clear”. It was obvious that I was not their first cancelation. They informed me my 30 pair had already been mailed, I was instructed to print on the label “Return to Sender” and drop in the mailbox. My credit card would be reimbursed for the $30 charge. Upon further investigation, I found that theses lenses are manufactured in Taiwan by St. Shine Optical. 2013 St. Practice Consultants CORNER — John Soper Shine Optical was cited by the FDA for violations of “failure to establish and maintain process control procedures” among other violations. Additionally, I was informed by an Associate at another TSO practice that they received a phone call from what was later confirmed as a Hubble phone number. The caller requested that the Associate agree to listen to a pre-recorded message. The Associate later found out Hubble was recording her saying “yes” and that that was being used as confirmation of the contact lens prescription. Upon reviewing some missed calls from TSO.com, I found a call to a practice at 11:59 pm from a Hubble phone number. No message was left requesting a return call. I am sure Hubble is a reputable company and that the experiences listed above are an anomaly. However, I think our patients would benefit from knowing that compared to Hubble: • We can provide them with lenses at close to or lower price considering their insurance benefit and applicable rebate. • We can ship to home or office with an annual supply • We use current lens designs that insure comfort and health • We can maximize visual acuity by refining the prescription if necessary. Hubble is just the first of private label contact lens manufacture to go direct to the public. We must not run off a patient whose family sees us annually for exams and glasses, because they want to buy contacts online. For this reason it is important to remember that we are their Doctors office and our primary concern is for the vision and health of their eye. By respectfully stating the above facts and not insulting the patient for their decisions, we can insure that when this fad is over, the patient will appreciate our professionalism and service more. Each month we ask one of the Practice Consultants to write an article on a subject they select to be important based on their work with offices in their region. This article has been printed as written by the author.