We recently interviewed Boston Vision’s Samir Melki, M.D., and Jason Brenner, M.D., to hear their assessment of how the launch of CoFi within their practice and across their market has gone. With 7 locations throughout eastern Massachusetts, Boston Vision is one of the largest ophthalmology groups in New England.

1. What was the driving impetus for you look into CoFi and adopt the platform?

Dr. Melki: There were two main reasons. One is compliance. We wanted to make sure that we're compliant with regulations. And two is relieving our staff from some of the tasks that they were doing in terms of tracking, writing checks, sending checks, making sure everybody gets paid. And these things, of course, relate to satisfaction for our staff and our co managing optometrists because the ODs collect from the patient and faster, and our staff doesn’t have to track payments, W9s, 1099s, etc. Something would fall through the cracks before. CoFi is much easier and things are more clear and streamlined.

Dr. Brenner: I think the first thing for me was compliance and making sure that patients could easily pay optometrists directly versus us writing checks. And also the ability to track these things in one system – both for our practice and the ODs’ practices.

2. What were some of your trepidations as you contemplated launching CoFi?

Dr. Melki: I think change is always hard, especially when you're talking about a lot of different ODs and practices, with different approaches to how they run their business and how open minded they or aren’t to technology. So, my initial reservation was that some optometrists are not going to want to sign up. But I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how everyone wanted to move forward with CoFi.

Dr. Brenner: Same for me. I was concerned that we were going to have a two-tiered system, with some optometrists on CoFi and some not, and that this was going to make things more complicated. My other concern was the added cost, whether to us or to the ODs. In the end, I don't think there was any resistance or any significant hurdle. I’ve also been very pleased with the outcome.

3. Do you have any feedback from the optometrists?

Dr. Melki: I think the optometrists are also aware of the push for compliance and some of the changes that are happening. And so, where they may not have been as receptive to this model, say, five years ago, I think everyone now knows how important compliance is. I think that has really helped with them not be resistant to change and quick to adopt CoFi for patient payments. I also think they like the product and the visibility they get around their co-managed patients and payments.

4. How has your staff responded to CoFi?

Dr. Brenner: Change is hard, and the fact that I have not received a single complaint from any of our staff, I think, speaks volumes.

Dr. Melki: I haven't heard any complaints and, if anything, the response has been positive. There’s less work versus how we used to administer these payments. And overall CoFi has been very well received. Again, I think again we're pleasantly surprised that the process has been so smooth.

5. What would you say to another surgeon or practice administrator thinking about using CoFi?

Dr. Melki: I’d say, whatever reservations you have, we had. And they turned out not to be an issue. Give it a try and let CoFi talk to your co-managing ODs. There's no reason why they should not succeed at it the same way they were with our practice. I think CoFi has done a great job and it’s working out well.”