By the time a patient sits down in an ophthalmologist’s exam room, they’ve already weighed your practice against the one down the road. They sized up your clinical credentials based on the referring doctor’s recommendation and an internet scan of your medical background and consumer reviews. They may also consider a financial element, and it goes beyond the insurance you accept. It’s how you’ll help them pay for care.

The CareCredit VisionIQ Study, conducted by Ipsos on behalf of Synchrony, found that 55% of patients are more likely to choose a vision care provider that offers a range of payment options. Put that insight to work for your practice.

Financing Can Tip a Close Decision in Your Favor

Because much of ophthalmology may run on referral, patients can often get two names to compare. If the clinical reputations are basically the same, the choice can come down to the care experience, which includes payment options. Make your financing options visible and you can give a patient deciding between ophthalmologists one more reason to choose you.

The CareCredit VisionIQ Study, which surveyed 2,000 consumers, also found that 44% of patients say they’d switch providers to get a more convenient payment option. The same convenience that can win new patients can help keep the current ones.

Make Financing Part of Your First Impression

Payment is often considered a non-clinical issue, so the office staff might address it after care is complete. But patients make decisions earlier. Before their appointment, they read the signals you send about whether you’ll be easy to deal with: how clearly your website explains cost, whether financing comes up without a struggle, how a "what’s this going to run me?" gets answered on the phone. Each one feeds the decision to book—or not.

The move here is straightforward. Patients are already judging your practice’s financing experience with or without your input. Giving them facts upfront avoids leaving their judgment to chance. Making financing options easy for patients to find and understand—on your website, during the consultation, any moment patients ask about cost—helps keep your practice on the list for a patient who might otherwise drift elsewhere without ever saying why.

Easy Ways to Tell Patients About Payment Options

Doing this doesn’t mean rebuilding your website or scripting every front-desk exchange. Instead, CareCredit provides resources that you can customize to fit your practice website and the way your team works. Here are a few:

• Financial Page Toolkit: Ready-made financing copy and banners that you can drop onto your site to highlight that you accept the CareCredit health and wellness credit card.
• Payment Calculator: Interactive digital tool that you can add to your website so patients can figure out their estimated monthly payment from your exam room—or even their kitchen table.
• Cost Talk Toolkit: Scripts and communication tips that give your team patient-friendly ways to talk about cost before, during and after the visit.

Patient choice hinges on the whole practice package, including clinical outcomes and patient service. Financing is a service that helps patients access your care. Treating the payment experience as part of how you’re judged can help give patients more reasons to choose you—and keep choosing you.

Curious what else patients said about their vision care choices? Check out the full CareCredit VisionIQ Study for more insights and a complete list of resources.

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