Opternative and 1- 800 Contacts: Two wrongs don’t make a right

The recent news in our profession was an announced partnership between Opternative and 1-800-Contacts.¹ With InstaRx powered by Opternative, customers can “stay home, eat some ice cream, and get a vision exam” according to the 1-800 Contacts website.

The reaction throughout the optometric profession has been what would be expected. Take a look at our recent story.²

Related: 1 800 Contacts now offers Opternative refraction to its customers

What do you expect from a partnership of two companies who have proven by their actions to not give a damn about the eye health of their customers and are out strictly to make a dollar? We’ve known for years that 1-800 will do whatever it takes in an attempt to skirt FDA patient safety device requirements the company sees as a barrier to sales.

Opternative is similarly out to provide a service that deliberately misleads the public into thinking they are receiving a comprehensive eye exam when in fact the customer is receiving nothing more than a prescription for glasses or contact lenses, completely oblivious to any underlying ocular pathology.

The partnering of these two companies may allow 1-800 to completely circumvent the laws in place to protect the public.

I recommend all optometrists take a look at the “Find a Doctor” page on Opternative’s website. This page allows registered users to enter their ZIP code to view a list of nearby eye doctors, giving users the impression that listed doctors are members of Opternative’s “telehealth team.”

The AOA registered a complaint in October 2015 regarding this practice, having noticed a number of doctors on the website “had never sought nor desired inclusion in any Opternative panel.”³

The founder of Opternative is on record saying he “remains hopeful that optometrists will someday be willing to partner with Opternative and bring the technology into their own practices.”³ Look, ODs aren’t afraid of disruptive technology. We realize that change is coming and we as a profession have to be willing to adapt to survive.

Yet Opternative’s desire to partner with optometry has been dealt a severe blow by the company’s decision to partner with and be exploited by a company who by its repeated actions put profits above the eye health of the patients we serve.

The moral of an Aesop’s fable is a man is known by the company he keeps. With this agreement, Opternative will be forever linked with 1-800-Contacts and may have torpedoed any intent of working with optometry.

References

1. Graham M. Opternative joins forces with 1-800-Contacts. Chicago Trib. Available at: http://www.chicagotribune.com/bluesky/originals/ct-opternative-1800-contacts-partnership-bsi-20160729-story.html. Accessed 8/4/16.

2. McCarthy C. 1 800 Contacts now offers Opternative refraction to its customers. Opt Times. Available at: http://optometrytimes.modernmedicine.com/optometrytimes/news/1-800-contacts-now-offers-opternative-refraction-its-customers. Accessed 8/4/2016.

3. American Optometric Association. Opternative’s doc locator appears to falsely imply endorsement. Available at: http://www.aoa.org/news/advocacy/aoa-opternatives-doc-locator-appears-to-falsely-imply-endorsement?sso=y. Accessed 8/4/2016.