Nordic Vision - nr 5 2006 - Sveriges Kontaktlinsförening

trappings of a big city, cheaper drinks and California
(and Texas) wines and you are not going to walk away
unhappy or undernourished from Houston.
The bottom line is that it will not cost you
much, you’ll have a good time and, above all, you’ll
learn something – hopefully a lot! If this is not enough
to convince a few of you to come for a visit I will drop
the registration fee for you, my Swedish colleagues, by
100 dollars to somewhere in the neighborhood of 200
dollars.
The University of Houston College of Optometry
continuing education (CE) program is an important
link between us and our profession. One of our priorities
is to serve our profession, but our CE department has to
be profi table. Our Cornea meeting is traditionally our
biggest program both in terms of attendance and profi t.
Th e success of this meeting is one reason I can give our
Viking visitors a break on the registration fee.
Talking about money brings to my mind
another aspect of our operations, our clinical program.
Our clinical program must be solvent – it must not cost
the tax payer money for me to examine a patient. We
are a teaching institution, so we are not going to be a
high volume clinic, but we must be effi cient and fi scally
responsible. Indeed, if we can do better than just break
even we will make money that we can use to buy new
equipment and to support education and research. Th e
latest fi gures on the income of our clinic activities have
just come in and I will here share with you some interesting
numbers.
Our clinics earned between 4 to 5 million
dollars last year and while accomplishing this feat we
managed to give away more than 500 000 dollars to
indigent care. Th at is right – we gave people, who had
no money, free services to the tune of half a million
dollars! We help poor people, members of our society
without insurance, citizens in fi nancial straights, hurricane
victims etc. We turn nobody away! I hear
sometimes, when visiting Sweden, that doctors in the
US are only interested in money and, if you, the patient,
don’t have money or insurance, you are out of luck.
Now you know that this is a lie, or as we say in Texas,
it is ‘BULLSHIT’. Th is year, by being more effi cient and
promoting our services better, we took in an extra cool
million dollars! Who says that state institutions must
cost the taxpayers a lot of money?
An important aspect of our clinical program
is not only to provide excellent patient care and clinical
training of tomorrow’s practitioners, but also to teach
our young clinicians to charge for their services. We
must request payment for the care we provide. Th e
State of Texas does not permit us to give away services
and material. However, when patients do not have the
means to pay for these services or materials, such as
spectacles, contact lenses and medications, we have
programs to help out. Most of our income is derived
from insurance, both federal and private. To get to that
money we must fi le the claims correctly, which is a
huge subject area itself. Our records must back up whatever
we ask to receive and, in the case of federal money,
it is a felony (read likely imprisonment) to fi le a false
claim. Th is is a serious business our student clinicians
must learn and running our clinics as a private entity
is a very good lesson for them to take with them into
practice aft er completing the qualifi cations for a
license.
Finally, come to Texas and enjoy our hospitality,
do some Christmas shopping and most
importantly receive great continuing education by the
best in the business!
University of Houston College of Optometry invites you to their 23 rd Cornea. Contact Lenses and Contemporary Vision Care Conference.
OUTLOOK | JAN BERGMANSON
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NORDIC VISION 5·2006 9