Despite the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, an uncertain economic climate and the evolving technologies that are changing the health and wellness arena, health care overall remains an attractive business sector to investors and entrepreneurs. And eyecare, with its fragmented but growing market, stands out as especially attractive for companies large and small that want to become more involved with patient care and practice management.
There are dozens of organizations—including both private equity-backed management service organizations (MSOs) and existing groups in eyecare, that see an opportunity in bringing together eyecare practices, including optometry offices and ophthalmology practices, either separately or together, under the umbrella of larger and better-positioned businesses.
In an effort to take the pulse of this growing activity within eyecare, Vision Monday surveyed several organizations to gauge where they stand currently in terms of size and scope and to get a sense of how they see the future.
Among the questions VM asked:
• What is the size of your organization? What are a few of your goals/objectives in 2022?
• Are there key learnings from the Covid-19 pandemic? Are the offices back to pre-pandemic service and operating levels?
• How are you evolving to improve patient care efforts, other operational areas?
• Do you foresee the current economic and geopolitical environment hampering operations and/or eyecare services this year?
• How active do you expect the group to be in terms of adding new partnerships this year?
• What is the organization’s view of success?
• Is there growing interest among independent or smaller eyecare groups to affiliate with larger organizations to better position their business?
The following rundown is an edited summary of the groups’ responses.
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