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@optotrician: Sunwear in Jewelry?

on September 28th, 2012 | Filed under @ the Optotrician, Optoblog

Guy with thick accent (Indian?) holding up $9.99 sunglasses: Do you have anything cheaper than this?
Optician: Over in jewelry there are more sunglasses.
Guy: Yes. Cheaper?
Optician: I don’t know for sure, but probably a few might be cheaper.
Guy just stands there.
Optician pointing to jewelry: Over in jewelry.
Guy: Where?
Optician: Look right over there. Jewelry.
Guy: Sunglasses?
Optician: Yes, a different selection over in jewelry.
Guy: Cheaper?
Optician: You’ll have to look and see.

I did an eye exam almost 3 years ago. The patient paid their copay. A couple weeks later the insurance paid the rest, a whopping $15. Almost three years later the insurance said their payment was made in error, so I have to remit to them a check for $15 or else a future EOB would have $15 deducted.
Whatever, they can deduct it, but I ain’t sending a check. Do they expect me to send the patient a statement for $15 for an exam from three years ago? Never mind the patient has probably moved, and even if they haven’t, they will probably shrug off the statement like I did from the insurance.
A month later the insurance takes $15 from one of my EOB payments. Luckily I don’t bother billing the patient because a week later, they sent me a check for the same patient’s three-year-old visit!
Make up your mind, insurance company!
[UPDATED: Today BCBS sent me ANOTHER letter saying that they overpaid me for this patient when they repaid me! Eat poop, BlueCross!]

I had a patient who has a really big head and his regular size glasses were making an indented, red scar in front of his ears. Of course I recommend the largest style frame we have called FatHeadz. He finds one he likes, and it fits his head perfectly. The optician enters the order, but the lab calls and says they can’t make it. It turns out he has a small PD; therefore, they don’t make a lens blank large enough for his combo of large frame, small pd. Poor guy.

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1 Comment

One Response to “@optotrician: Sunwear in Jewelry?”

  1. Isaac says:

    For future instances, you might try something we used to do in the military. Choose a metallic frame, and bow the side-arms around the temple. You could then do a smaller pd, with a longer temple piece, and bow them around the large head. It ain’t always pretty, but functional.