The welcoming look of the optical dispensary at one of Vision Associates’ newer
customers, Bethlehem Eye Associates of Bethlehem, Pa. WARREN, N.J.—Vision Associates Inc. (VAI), a leading optical dispensary management (ODM) and consulting firm, reported that its business operations generated 20 percent growth in 2016, driven in part by the addition of 15 eyecare offices to its nationwide roster.
“While the company’s success reflects the sector’s ongoing growth surge, its 20 percent growth far surpassed the industry average of 3 percent,” VAI reported in a late February statement.
In a move to support its ongoing expansion and anticipated growth, VAI said it added nine regional managers in 2016, which nearly tripled the number of regional managers to 14, and formed a strategic alliance with Professional Eyecare Resource Co-operative (PERC), a group purchasing organization. In addition, VAI executive director Mary Walker, COE, was named to the Vision Monday list of Influential Women in Optical.
Joe Casorio Joe Casorio, co-principal of VAI, said 2016 was an “exciting year” for the company. “We’ve seen more and more ophthalmology and optometry practices turning toward outsourcing management as a result of longstanding underperformance. These practices have really come to appreciate the vital role an optical dispensary can play as a profit center,” he said.
Kurt Behrle VAI, which was established in 1993, offers a turnkey management system with a wide range of comprehensive services, including inventory management of manufactured eyewear, training and development of staff, lab facility integration, point-of-sale software, organization of third-party billing and in-house marketing.
The rapid adoption of ODMs by the eyecare industry can be “attributed to the major advantages it brings to practices—mainly, operational efficiency and increased profits,” the VAI statement noted.
Kurt Behrle, co-principal of VAI, said: “As optical practices face increasingly demanding compliance issues on the medical side, we are finding more of them turning to us for the depth of experience we can bring to guiding them toward increased profitability and efficiency.”