Vision Trends is an optometric alliance dedicated to supporting independent practices. That’s something a lot of organizations say, but we live it. As independent business owners and practicing optometrists, we are connected to our patients, staff and practice. We experience the same challenges our alliance members do every day in our own practices. To do our best for our members, we consider it vital that we remain an independent organization.

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We are one of the only - if not the only - affiliate group that is privately owned: we have not sold out to private equity, and we’re not a big corporate entity using independent practice owners to push its own products or agenda.

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We value our independence as business owners, and we don’t try to force our members into restrictive, long-term commitments. Our Affiliate members can cancel their contract on 60 days’ notice. We also offer a month-to-month Profit Plus membership with a lower level of benefits, so that practice owners can try us at no risk. The fact that our members can easily opt-out means we have to perform for them.

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We are committed to negotiating vendor partnerships that can demonstrate more value and, when necessary, build our own programs that help members overcome business challenges. We work hard to provide everything our members need for success. We negotiate pricing and rebates with our vendors, and we are one of the only doctor alliances that passes 100% of the negotiated rebates to its affiliate members. We provide extensive education programs and have even designed our own online staff training program, provide free doctor CE, offer practice consulting, and host meetings where members can share ideas and experiences. We provide access to specialists in areas like insurance filing and purchasing equipment.

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We believe in transparency and our members’ success: our members can talk to the two of us anytime, and we offer our own hands-on experience in how to run a successful optometric practice. Vision Trends is all about choice, which is why we have partnerships with multiple vendors for virtually anything that is needed to run a practice. In the eyeglass lens category, we love working with GSRx.

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Their lenses are top-of-the-line digital products, their customer service goes above and beyond, and their pricing structure saves our members a lot in cost of goods.

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But GSRx offers more than great products, service, and pricing – they are a partner in the best sense. Like us, they are truly independent and they respect the independent spirit of Vision Trends members by never trying to restrict their freedom.

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We appreciate GSRx’s honesty and complete transparency. Their customer service team is proactive and communicates effectively. The entire company is given the latitude “to make things right” when an issue arises, and GSRx’s leadership is available whenever we need them. GSRx’s structure means the company can make better choices for their customers much faster than the larger corporations.

 

GSRx is an ideal partner for Vision Trends because they share our values and our total commitment to independent optometry. For us, GSRx is like looking in a mirror.

 

Michael Toups, OD is President, and Douglas Inns, OD is Vice President of Vision Trends, Inc. They co-founded Vision Trends in 2006 and co-own Eye Trends, an independent private practice with six locations in Texas.

 

Vision Trends is a fiercely independent, solutions-driven and truly transparent optometric alliance with a national membership. For more information, visit Vtrends.us.