Back-to-School Optical Care: Patient Financing and a Kid-Friendly Approach

Getting ready for back to school can involve a host of activities for children and their families — choosing new clothes, purchasing backpacks, preparing for new teachers and classmates. It might also mean a family and child visit to an optometrist’s office for a back-to-school eye exam.

Families may be scheduling appointments now for a variety of reasons, such as:

• Annual checkups and referrals from primary care doctors
• First-time visits for infants or young children
• Proactive parents looking to update prescriptions or monitor known conditions before the school year starts
• School exams or teacher recommendations due to signs of vision issues in the classroom
• Specialty eyewear needs related to sports, extracurricular activities or screen time

What often begins as a routine visit for one child can quickly evolve into a family-wide checkup: new contacts for a teen, a sibling wanting new glasses frames for their new grade or even Mom or Dad realizing it's time for readers or progressive lenses. These additional wants and needs can add up even with vision insurance, especially when deductibles, copays or costs for services and products not fully covered come into play.

As you enter the back-to-school season, it's important to ensure that your optometry practice is prepared to provide care and eyewear for the whole family, which includes being prepared with both family-friendly financial solutions and child-friendly care.

Offer Flexible Financing Solutions to Support Family Vision Care

Many eye care practices have financing solutions ready in advance to better help families get the vision care and treatment they may want or need. One example is the CareCredit credit card, which allows cardholders to pay for their care over time and take advantage of special financing options on qualifying purchases, such as No Interest if Paid in Full within 6, 12, 18 or 24 Months or a reduced APR with fixed monthly payments — depending on which options you offer.

Research shows that refractive and optometry patients are looking for greater flexibility when it comes to how they pay for care. According to the CareCredit Path to Care – Optical Purchase Findings study, 52% of surveyed patients said that offering a variety of payment options is crucial in selecting an optical provider, and 40% said they will consider financing if it helps enable an immediate purchase. The increased financial flexibility that comes with patient financing can go a long way, considering 1 in 3 patients said they will postpone making an optical purchase if it's not covered by insurance.¹

When you offer patients additional options like flexible financing, you help make it easier for families to say yes to timely, comprehensive vision care, which can have a lasting impact on their eye health and your practice.

Make Your Office More Welcoming for Kids and Families

Of course, financing flexibility is just one way to support families during the busy back-to-school season. It’s also important to make your office a welcoming and comfortable place for children, especially those who may feel nervous or uncertain about their visit.

Here are some ways you and your staff can make the experience more positive and engaging for young patients and their families:

• Keep things fun. If your practice serves a lot of kids, create an environment that is welcoming to them. Decorate your waiting area and exam rooms in playful ways, with colorful, kid-friendly posters. Paint storytelling murals on your walls, have toys and games in your waiting room or set up a chalkboard wall for kids to doodle.

• Ensure the child is comfortable. Toddlers and preschoolers can feel anxious during healthcare visits. Offering seating that allows parents and children to stay close, such as chairs or exam tables where little ones can sit on a parent’s lap, can help create a welcoming environment and foster a sense of security. When staff engage with children in a gentle and warm manner, it may help them feel at ease while waiting and during conversations about their care. Even simple moments of connection — like explaining what to expect in a calm, friendly way — can help build trust and comfort.
• Use fixation targets specifically for kids. Make the fixation targets you'll use for children to focus their vision on fun. They might be small spinning light toys, finger puppets or animal stickers placed on popsicle sticks.²
• Promote vision therapy, if appropriate. Children as young as 2 and 3 years old can benefit from vision therapy.³ By retraining a child’s vision to interpret visual input better, a child’s reading, learning, attention and concentration levels can be improved.⁴ Help your clients and potential clients understand the value and importance of this therapy by including short videos or patient testimonials on your website or social media platforms. During and after exams, talk to parents about these therapy options and whether they might be appropriate for their child.
• Share your expert opinion on screen time and how parents might work to limit it for their children. It's no surprise that excessive screen time has been linked to myopia, or nearsightedness.⁵ These vision issues can affect up to 42% of school-aged children.⁶ In addition to educating parents about these issues, you may also wish to develop videos and other materials that raise awareness and offer suggestions on how parents can effectively limit their kids' daily screen time.
• Help parents stay consistent with exams and follow-ups. Provide easy ways for parents to schedule appointments for their child, including through a few clicks on your website, or via follow-up emails and reminder text messages.

Create a Smoother Back-to-School Experience

As back-to-school season approaches, families often find themselves juggling a variety of preparations and routines, including those related to vision care. By offering flexible financing solutions and creating a welcoming, kid-friendly office environment, your practice can help families move forward with recommended care and products that support an A+ start to the new school year.

A Flexible Financing Solution for Optometry Practices

If you want to help your patients or clients manage the cost of the vision care solutions they want or need, you may want to consider offering CareCredit as a financing solution. CareCredit allows cardholders to pay out-of-pocket expenses over time (for needs such as premium frames, contact lenses and vision care) while helping to enhance the payments process for your practice or business.

When you accept CareCredit, patients or clients can see if they prequalify with no impact to their credit score, and those who apply, if approved, can take advantage of special financing on qualifying purchases.* Additionally, you will be paid directly within two business days.

Learn more about the CareCredit credit card as a financing solution for your optometry practice or start the provider enrollment process by filling out this form.­

Author Bio

Todd Murphy is a professional writer and editor with more than 30 years of experience including two decades as a newspaper and magazine journalist. He has worked with hospitals, academic health centers, universities and other institutions to create content for various audiences, with a focus on providers, patients, prospective patients and the general public.

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