About Us
TPPI is the brainchild of an experienced, nationally recognized, private practitioner. Attending numerous meetings over the years and noticing obvious voids in the education, the idea was born. With over 15 years of experience leading a study group and having overwhelming success with growth, information exchange and expanding boundaries, the Private Practice Institute was born.
There are over 46,000 optometrists in the United States along with roughly 18,000 ophthalmologists. Slightly more than 50% of them are in private practice but more and more practice owners are selling out to private equity. If interventions are not imposed soon, the private practitioner will go the way of the locally owned pharmacy with most services being delivered by commercial entities. Support in 2013, 57% of those offices were owned by individuals. Just a short 10 years later, less than 50% are owned by private owners with over 10% of practices both OD and MD being bought out by private equity.
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There are several reasons to speculate why this may be happening however it is
noted that the average ticket price per patient increases when PE gets involved, recalls become more active and of course, with PE doing all the back house tasks including hiring, managing, ordering and delivering, private practice has become less attractive. Private practice in 2023 means the provider has to know how to get patients in the door, how to bill, how to get them out the door and how to maximize sales including how to hire, how to fire and the list goes on and on.
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The private practice institute’s mission is to serve as the primary repository for
information, best practices, resources and webinars of information on running a
successful private practice to eliminate and or minimize the fear and feelings of
isolation that are rampart in running a business. Additionally, devising a work, life balance plan for participants will be another component of the program.
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New content will be added at least monthly with additions to several areas including coding and billing, staff hiring, staff retention, planning, managing A/R, budgeting, and other topics of importance to private practitioners.