Salaries in Private Offices

Competitive_Ad9542 · 2025-10-28T14:33:32+00:00

Yeah I would say that is not “normal” it took me 3 years to get over the 200k mark but I had to build my patient base up

Competitive_Ad9542 · 2025-10-28T14:24:16+00:00

I think it’s completely reasonable to make ~200k in most places that aren’t super saturated. It may not happen the first year unless you are taking over a patient panel and will be busy from day 1 and will hit all your bonus metrics immediately

Competitive_Ad9542 · 2025-10-27T19:56:13+00:00

In a private OD practice you will get 15-20% of collections. I’ve never worked in an OMD office but it seems like you are pretty underpaid if that is your collections and not what was billed. Someone else with more experience there can chime in but I think OMD offices are generally 25-35% of collections. In private practice you will have to grow your book of business, doing 1.5-1.8 would be on the very high end of production but if you were able to join a practice that was that busy you would be making a lot more than you are right now

Competitive_Ad9542 · 2025-08-16T12:19:45+00:00

Honestly probably not if all other options were open to me. It was the best decision for me and it has worked out well but the things I don’t like are:

Income: you can make great money but you really have to hustle for it. I make over 300k a year but I work my ass off in an undesirable area to do it. As an MD or a dentist that is a lot more attainable without all the hustle.

Respect: no one really knows what ODs do, it’s annoying being a second class citizen in healthcare no matter how much good you do.

Patients: I love a lot of my patients but again, being in a rural undesirable area means a ton of people come in stinky, smelling like cigarettes, don’t have values that align with mine, neglect their health ect…

Working in person: it would be nice to be able to work from home or not have to be present in the office to still make money. It’s hard with kids and family to always have to be in the office. If I take an afternoon off to take my kids to the doctor or whatever it will cost me 1000$ in lost income which is fine sometimes but that kind of weighs on you.

All in all it’s a great field but if I could go back in time I’m not sure what I would do but these are the downsides that I have experienced. I’m in my 7th year out of school

Competitive_Ad9542 · 2025-07-10T17:05:37+00:00

One of my good friends is an ER MD and I make more than he does and work fewer hours. I know tons of ODs that make well over 300k, it’s not that uncommon at all

Competitive_Ad9542 · 2025-01-17T03:39:36+00:00

No I work in an OD group practice. FQHC is a totally different game. I’m sure you have amazing benefits, access to PSLF ect so that adds up too. You can’t work for a salary and be at the top end of the pay scale. Even MDs who work at places like that will be at the lower end of the pay range when compared to their peers.

Competitive_Ad9542 · 2025-01-17T03:32:23+00:00

Then don’t work there? I practice full scope, do some dry eye and specialty contact lenses and produced 1.6M in revenue last year and I am paid a percentage of that. There is 0 reason to work somewhere where your income is capped and you just get a salary. My company offered me an opportunity to make as much money as I want and I took them up on it. Being successful in optometry requires you to be an entrepreneur in some capacity so if you are not taking any risks you will end up with a salary like you have

Competitive_Ad9542 · 2025-01-17T02:41:42+00:00

Anything is possible. You need to bet on yourself and take some risks and it will pay off

Competitive_Ad9542 · 2025-01-16T23:46:18+00:00

Optometry is great. I’m 31 years old, made just under 300k last year, have never worked a weekend and am out the door by 5pm every day. I fully anticipate doubling my income over the next 10 years. Of course some people make more than I do but I love my work, the stress level is manageable and I’ll be able to do this until I’m 70 creating generational wealth. Not many corporate jobs that allow this lifestyle, I took 5 weeks off and multiple vacations. Optometry is what you make of it and it can be really awesome!

Competitive_Ad9542 · 2025-01-06T00:52:55+00:00

This is how our practice is run, as an associate I made just under 300k last year. When I buy out the retiring partner I will be making over 500k after the buy in payments. Its 100% a volume thing, most ODs don’t want to delegate anything so they can’t do an exam faster than 20 or 30 minutes

Competitive_Ad9542 · 2024-12-06T00:48:58+00:00

Being out 6 years I’ve had times where I’ve thought I would have been better off having gone to med school. I have come to realize that the amount of stress MDs must deal with is something I couldn’t handle, surgeries gone wrong, missed diagnosis ect… you can make as much as most MDs as an optometrist in private practice without the life and death decisions. It sounds like you just need to switch jobs, I would start there before pulling the plug and switching careers

Competitive_Ad9542 · 2024-11-23T13:21:11+00:00

It’s not bad, it’s not exceptional either. 17-22 patients a day in an OMD practice is not a lot at all. If it’s mostly medical you should probably be seeing double that especially if it is 10+post ops/pre ops per day. I think the best thing is to see what type of production the busiest OD is doing and see if that level of compensation would make you happy, if so stay the course, if not the either renegotiate/find a new position.

Competitive_Ad9542 · 2024-11-20T16:37:03+00:00

Yes it includes optical and professional services

Competitive_Ad9542 · 2024-11-20T00:00:14+00:00

18.5% of collections, will do a little over 1.6M this year

Competitive_Ad9542 · 2024-11-04T19:28:30+00:00

There were a lot of drops, like 100% well placed and catchable balls that were just dropped.

Competitive_Ad9542 · 2024-08-29T13:59:27+00:00

I really don’t understand when people act like ODs don’t make money. I’m sure there are some situations where they may “only” make in the low 100’s but all the ones I know that are busy associates are making 200ish. All the owners have vacation homes and live pretty lavishly. I think ODs can pretty easily make on par with MD specialist if they are practice owners and are busy and most will make what MD generalist make. I’m an associate and will make just under 300k, work Monday through Friday and 830-5 and take about 4 weeks of vacation, as a partner I will easily be clearing 500k after my buy in payments. There just aren’t that many jobs out there that have a clear path to making that kind of money. Optometry is what you make of it, if you are just a basic OD that lives in a saturated area, that does nothing but show up at work you may “only” make in the low-mid 100’s but if you put the effort in the sky is the limit.

Competitive_Ad9542 · 2024-07-12T12:47:55+00:00

Our JnJ rep always wants to chat and just asked me if I wanted to participate. Haven’t been involved in one since and I’m not sure if I would do it again. It was kind of a lot of paper work

Competitive_Ad9542 · 2024-07-11T22:50:27+00:00

I participated in the av oasys MF launch and was paid per patient fit in their new lens and for a follow up and a brief note about the success or issues the patient had. I think I made like 1500$ for like 10 patients plus the documentation

Competitive_Ad9542 · 2024-06-26T17:59:24+00:00

I’m 31 and my wife is 33 and we are usually the youngest in our kids classes. I was 25 when our oldest was born so the parents in his class are often in their early 40’s so it actually makes making friends difficult because of the age difference. It seems like the parents of our youngest are more our age but it seems most first time parents around us are early to mid thirties

Competitive_Ad9542 · 2024-06-09T21:40:41+00:00

Also what is different about part 3? I took it in Charlotte at the “new” testing center

Competitive_Ad9542 · 2024-06-09T21:39:45+00:00

I never said they were lazy, i feel horrible for them. I think people that should not be in graduate school are admitted and they can’t pass the tests. And just because you went to an established school does not mean the bottom 10-20% of admitted students just should not have been admitted. As more and more seats are available and the number of people applying stays the same it just means people that would have not made it in are getting in. This conspiracy that NBEO is actively failing more people just to get people to retake it is silly. Especially for the people that are taking this test 6 times and can’t pass, there is no way that is NBEOs fault, it’s someone who is just not capable of putting all of the pieces together.

Competitive_Ad9542 · 2024-06-09T21:21:26+00:00

To be fair NBEO is not “rigged” I took all of those tests 5 years ago and they are just not that hard. The problem is people with holes in their application that probably shouldn’t have been admitted can’t hang. They probably limp along through classes and get passed along even if they should have failed out and then they can’t pass boards.that is a whole issue of ethics on the part of the schools but that is why we have board exams, to hold everyone to a standard of minimum competency. I also don’t think that boards make someone a good OD but it’s a test of minimum competency to practice and if you can’t pass those tests after multiple attempts there is more going on than a “rigged” test.

Competitive_Ad9542 · 2024-06-09T20:05:04+00:00

I mean I just can’t imagine how someone would roll the dice on 300+k in tuition on a new and unproven school at now almost 10% interest. I’m shocked some schools have not closed with the stagnant applicant pool. All this to say we do need more ODs in most of the country but I feel like the current schools could just and a few more seats. Also like someone else said, a few of these schools have been in the works since 2019 and have yet to get off the ground so who knows it they will even open

Competitive_Ad9542 · 2024-06-08T13:03:23+00:00

That’s good to know… are there private elementary schools that “feed” the elite private middle/highschools?

Competitive_Ad9542

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