By Cathy Ciccolella
Senior Editor
RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif.--With five years’ experience and more than 150 million online transactions completed, industry Internet portal Eyefinity is looking ahead to continuing growth, “because our services have made a difference,” according to president and chief executive officer Don Yee.
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| Don Yee |
Launched by parent Vision Service Plan (VSP) in April 2000, Eyefinity started with a base of nearly 14,000 office users, as its Web site became the exclusive destination for all VSP electronic claims submission and other services.
Today, Eyefinity says it serves more than 18,000 private eyecare practices and 320 optical laboratories, and processes more than 25 million transactions annually.
“Thousands of transactions--lab orders, insurance claims, purchase orders--happen via Eyefinity each minute,” Yee told VM. “And all three of those areas are growing, at double-digit rates; we’re also finding more offices using everything we provide.”
The list of what Eyefinity provides has grown substantially since its early days. Currently the company’s services include:
- eClaim: an online filing system allowing offices to submit claims electronically for government and commercial insurance plans, including VSP.
- eWeb Extra: a practice Web-site product offering site design and personalized addresses, patient registration forms, appointment scheduling integrated system and more. Eyefinity also offers eWeb, a free Web site service offering basic features for practices just getting started on establishing an Internet presence.
- eBuy: for online ordering of optical and office products through Eyefinity’s relationships with suppliers across the industry spectrure.
- eLab: to order directly from more than 300 optical laboratories online.
- eRewards: allowing eyecare practitioners and staff to take advantage of vendors’ promotional opportunities.
“Our growth has been a direct result of providing value to our customers,” Yee said. “That value comes because we simplify the way business gets done, by streamlining and speeding things up. Our services cut out the steps that don’t make sense, making it easier for the independent practitioner to serve the patient.”
What do eyecare practitioners feel Eyefinity has brought to their practices? In Jamestown, N.Y., Spectrum Eyecare, a four-optometrist practice, has used Eyefinity for five years, said partner Gregory Jones, OD: “I’m very enthused about Eyefinity--its functions make things more convenient for patients, and it’s a way for us to improve our services.”
For example, Spectrum Eyecare uses Eyefinity to generate insurance claim forms and authorizations, “so we know what a patient’s benefits are when he or she first walks in.” Insurance queries are made when a patient initially makes an appointment, to save time. The practice also uses the new VSP calculator feature to check on a patient’s allowances for frames, tints and so forth, and what out-of-pocket costs may be due.
Finally, frame ordering is done via Eyefinity, with 45 percent to 50 percent of the practice’s orders placed online.
Summed up Jones, “Eyefinity has worked very well for us. It’s easy for the provider to use, and according to the feedback I hear from our staff, they keep making it better and better.” Looking ahead to the next five years, Yee expects further additions to Eyefinity’s services. “Every year we do something new,” he told VM.
Helping to determine those innovations is feedback from Eyefinity users, both through the company’s extensive customer-service operation and through one-on-one contacts between Yee and his team and the independent practitioners Eyefinity serves. A “practice excellence alliance” of about 20 practices also helps the company craft its service offerings.
Five years ago, “we had an original vision of how private practices and the eyewear/eyecare industry could come together,” Yee recalled. “Now we’re seeing an accelerated pace for our services because doctors are adopting them. We’re very optimistic this will become the primary way of doing business.”
