Anagram

Vorteile

This product helps me competer for VSP patients since our practice is out of network. We would not be as successful if it wasn't for this product.

Nachteile

customer support can be slow at times when we do have issues.

Vorteile

We have been using Anagram in our office for almost 2 years now. When we first opened our office we decided that we would not be accepting an vision plans in the office. As an initial offering we were matching pricing with our patients vision plans, and though we were able to make it work with our glasses sales, the exam copays and discounts on contact lenses were absolutely killing us. We decided to make the switch over to Anagram as it allowed us to seamlessly look up benefits for patients and file them all in the same platform. I had experience with a similar program at a previous employer and learned some great verbiage to explain how the process works to our patients, and have passed that on to our other employees creating a successful integration of Anagram into our practice. Anagram has been a great driver for us in growing exams and capturing material sales from those exams.

Nachteile

The only downside has been when plans occasionally populate with OON benefits, but then once filed we find out that that particular plan does not offer OON benefits. This issue seems to be pretty much resolved as it hasn't been an issue in quite some time, and only affected about 5-10 patients. So a very small sample size.

Vorteile

there is nothing good to say about the company who has not phone number to contact, no support team will reply to email.

Nachteile

everything from customer service, features and pricing.

Vorteile

Anagram is very helpful when looking into out of network benefits for our patients as well as being able to submit for reimbursement on our patients behalf. Majority of the vision plans we see are available for searches, with the exception of a couple obscure vision plans. Anagram universal search has saved a lot of time and was even helpful by providing inactive/older vision plans. Anagram is also very user friendly which is very helpful!

Nachteile

I would like to see Anagram expand their options of vision insurance plans, maybe add more of the obscure vision insurance plans that we still see sometimes. It would also be nice to be able to get notified when a patient receives their reimbursement or a way to track how long it may take for a patient to get the check in the mail.

Vorteile

I like that I am able to look up out of network benefits for our patients that choose to come to us. I hate that vision plans are dictating how people should be acquiring their optical needs, people should have a choice to go anywhere & this enables so the patients can

Nachteile

there is not really anything that I dislike, it works as it is designed to work

Vorteile

It's easy to use, very user friendly. Extremely helpful in encouraging patients to come to my establishment despite not being "in network". Patients are excited to know they could still benefit from our customer service and get reimbursed from their optical coverage.

Nachteile

I would like the courtesy claim feature be used for any insurance. Even if there's no guarantee the patient would be reimbursed, at least I could try.

Vorteile

What I like most about Anagram is that there is real time customer service help thru their chat feature. They are almost always available (and we are in a weird timezone) Anagram is THE TOOL you need to utilize all your patient's vision care vendor benefits.

Nachteile

Sometimes I feel like there may be a language barrier with the customer service folks. For example if a patient has 2 VCPs & they are both available to work on within the platform but you have a question about "Mrs. Smith's 2nd VSP plan under the spouse" they will usually not understand what you need, work the primary plan (that doesn't need working) and after the time it took for them to verify the info that we didn't need em to work, it's too time consuming to tell em that's the wrong one. So I usually just move on with my life and figure it out.

Vorteile

The effectiveness, easy, and easy to understand

Nachteile

There are no cons for me. Anagram has gotten our clinic to which it made our patients very happy.

Vorteile

I like the variety of vision plans that I can search within its platform. I am also satisfied with the increased speed of each search which is a benefit when customers are waiting.

Nachteile

I am unhappy that the company does not have a dedicated customer service phone number to reach out for help. I would also like to see an expansion of insurance plans featured on the service.

Vorteile

Very easy to navigate. It gives patients the benefits up front so they don't have to wait to get reimbursed.

Nachteile

No cons, so far. Wished we started using it sooner.

Vorteile

It helps me see patients while getting the middle man (insurance company) out of the equation. This allows me to provide the best quality of care for my patients.

Nachteile

n/a.

Vorteile

User friendly software, quick and easy to look up patient's coverage while patient is on phone, and to submit claims after the exams. Chat box is super convenient and responses to my questions are usually fairly quick, within minutes. Anagram allowed me to be totally transparent and upfront with my patients regarding their coverages and my fees, and patients seem to like this and are more willing to book appts with me quickly, and to my surprise, they are ok with paying fees upfront knowing that I will submit their claims for them and they will receive a reimbursement check in the mail from their insurance. I no longer have to wait months to receive reimbursement checks from VSP nor worry if I'll ever get the checks, which has been such a headache since I started my practice 10 mos ago. I also received wonderful training with Jesenia, who was a great support in encouraging me to use Anagram as a way to better my business practice and run it exactly how I want to run it...in a way that spotlights what sets me apart from other providers, and where I can confidently sell my quality of care to patients. Anagram has helped significantly in reducing my prior feelings of frustration and stress about being an out of network provider. Now, I am confident in being an open access provider and patients seems to be attracted to this change of approach and introduction to my practice, and thus my patient capture and revenue have increased as a result. The staff at Anagram seem to really care about and support the users of their software and want us to succeed. I feel assured that I can always call on them if I ever need help, support or advice.

Nachteile

There have been a couple of things that have recently seemed to be resolved. So I can't think of anything new right now, as I've only been using Anagram for 2.5 weeks.

Vorteile

Anagram is very easy to navigate for both locating insurance plans and processing claims.

Nachteile

Anagram doesn't have any major downsides, it works smoothly and efficiently for everything we use it for.

Vorteile

Our office really enjoys using this platform it helps us with our billing specifically out of network patients

Nachteile

Nothing really really an amazing team extremely quick and answering my questions

Vorteile

I love I can see if a patient has benefits, is eligible to use the benefits, and what they can expect their reimbursement to be.

Nachteile

The universal search isn't standard. Would really cut back on time spent putting a patient's info in.

Vorteile

We can easily look up our patients out of network benefits and file the claim for them. This gives us a chance to capture the customer with vision insurance even though we are out-of-network providers.

Nachteile

A few years ago the system wasn’t very good at finding the benefits right away but they have done an amazing job revamping the system over the last few years and it finds the benefits quickly now.

Vorteile

The thought of stepping away from a vision insurance platform was challenging. [sensitive content hidden] our rep was understanding and helpful. It allowed us to assist and honor our loyal patients and still be able to have a viable health care platform.

Nachteile

All good overall. Maybe more videos describing the produce would have allowed us to connect sooner.

Vorteile

Anagram is so easy to use and makes it so easy to find patients insurance! It saves so much time and gives accurate results for what we need. It is easy to file a claim and takes about 2 minutes to do so. Where we are out of network but open access with all vision providers it makes it easy to be able to tell patients what they are going to get back from their insurance and be able to say you will have it filed at the end of the day. Universal search has saved so much time when patients come in and have no idea what vision insurance even is and we can just take their name and date of birth to find what it is or if they even if one.

Nachteile

It sometimes takes longer than expected and we'll have to sit for 5-30 minutes waiting for it to manually contact the insurance provider, which is understandable but also unfortunate when we are waiting for their plan to come back so we can tell the patient if we take their insurance or not.

Vorteile

Program is easy to use. Also customer service is very helpful when need support.

Nachteile

We have had no issues with Anagram. Any issues we run into we are able to contact customer service for help

Vorteile

I have been in the optical industry for almost 2 decades. In my previous employment we have always been in-network with VSP so this is my first experience with being an OON practice. Anagram has been easy to use and when we have problems finding patients within the portal the CSR's have been amazing in pulling the data that we have not been able to access.

Nachteile

While the CRS's are extremely helpful it would be nice if the response time was a little faster.

Vorteile

Anagram has been a great benefit to my small office. Not having a dedicated person for insurance benefits and claim management it was difficult to stay on top of benefits and claims. Anagram has solved that problem by being very user friendly and prompt with correct information.

Nachteile

There is not a downside to using Anagram.

Vorteile

I DO LIKE THE NEW UNIVERSAL SEARCH. IT HAS BEEN HELPFUL.

Nachteile

THE EYEMED MEDICARE DECLINING BALANCE FOR MOST PATIENTS IS NOT CORRECT. IT REQUIRES A CHAT WITH SOMEONE TO VERIFY BY DOING A MANUAL CHECK FOR EACH.

Vorteile

I love that in just a couple steps we are able to search for our patients that do not know what they have for insurance.

Nachteile

That we can not search for Optilegra and Avesis also.

Vorteile

Having all of the details benefits for patients, very easy to read and understand.

Nachteile

Having to go through multiple vision plans to find which one is associated with the patient.

Vorteile

Anagram works well for submitting a reimbursement claim for clients

Nachteile

it sometimes takes a bit to get the information to populate when connecting plans with clients.

Vorteile

I love being able to tell patients "yes, we accept insurance!" without the hassle of actually dealing with the insurance companies ourselves. It takes the workload off of both us at the practice and the patients as well!

Nachteile

I'd like to see inclusion of more insurances, like physicians eyecare.

Vorteile

When we opened out retail optical shop, we were adamant about not taking insurance for many reasons. This allows us to accept insurance out of network and make it a smooth process for us and the patient.

Nachteile

Not being able to universal search for $0/month.

Vorteile

I love how easy it is to use. Anagram is set up very simple and appealing to the eye.

Nachteile

Once the Universal search is available, nothing! I can see how the universal search will improve anagram greatly!

Vorteile

Anagram allowed my practice to drop all insurance and still provide the convenience of filing for our patients in a few easy steps!

Nachteile

In the beginning, there were a few bugs when pulling benefits but they've worked that out well.

Vorteile

Very easy to use! It's so fast to find someone's vision plan, if they have one. If they don't and without the universal search it takes forever having to re plug in the information for each plan.

Nachteile

If they have a vision plan and it pulls up you have to go back and select that plan and enter in all the information

Vorteile

Being able to help the customer submit the claim. It makes me feel as if I am taking some pressure off of the customer.

Nachteile

That there are not more insurance companies we can submit to.

Vorteile

Our practice uses Patch to obtain out of network benefits so that our patients have the freedom to keep us as a provider even though we are not in their network. Being an open access provider is so easy! We use much less staff time working on VSP claims AND we generate more income for the practice per patient. By offering discounts to the patient and accepting assignment (payments) from VSP directly, we are still able to offer great value while at the same time offer premium optical products and services. Also, submitting claims is much easier than submitting claims in network with VSP.

Nachteile

VSP sometimes makes it difficult for Patch to find the benefits of a patient. But Patch has a direct message system that allows them to look into any problems or discrepancies right away if the benefits don't come up automatically (which they usually do). Even though it make take some time to find benefits for a patient, Patch is there every step of the way letting us know what the status is.

Vorteile

Patch is great! I highly recommend using it!!
- The platform is easy to use the the support team is very friendly and helpful!!

- Patch can help finalize the sale! We've been in business since 1952 and we never had to worry about Insurances back in the day, Now, Insurance is the norm and Patch is a game changer that allows us to compete with the chain stores. Everyone wants their "FREE Pair" of eyewear. Patch allows us to sell quality eyewear and help patients get the most out of their out of network insurance benefits.

Nachteile

Plugging in a patient's information is a little different for each Insurance Carrier.
Example: Sometimes you need the Member ID, sometimes S.S. is the only thing that's needed besides other basic information.

- We do a lot of eyewear for kids and we are finding a lot of solo plans only for children.
Which is tough to then find their benefits because we always need the primary first.

Vorteile

This software allows me to file insurance claims for most Out of Network vision plans, while also allowing me to receive my full exam price for a comprehensive eye exam without compromising the value, and it's as easy to understand that even my 12 year old can file claims for me! EASE OF USE for the non-technical individual is KEY to keeping my workload down and my free time out of the office at a maximum.

Nachteile

There are insurance plans that do need a member ID number to obtain benefits, and there are some vision plans that do not regularly distribute ID cards with their members, making it more difficult for the staff AND patient to obtain benefits and file seamlessly. It would be great to only have to use the last 4 digits of the member's social security number like some plans allow.

Vorteile

You are able to verify patients benefits. File a claim online. Customer service is quite helpful.

Nachteile

Payments take a long time to arrive. Once payment is received its not the same as verified. Verifying patient benefits could take a long time. Its quite frustrating at times. We filed claims and providers say they never received the claim. So patch has a long way to go and we are going through the growing pains.

Vorteile

There is a wide variety of insurance companies that are supported by this software. The information required by patients is very minimal and the verification process is much faster than calling or going to the specific insurance company websites. Checks typically come within 3 weeks from major carriers and reimbursement rates are as shown in Patch. The support personnel are highly skilled and take the time to answer all questions regarding insurance.

Nachteile

There is nothing to list. This is a great company with people who care about doing their jobs correctly.

Vorteile

It's easy to use. And patients get their payments relatively quickly. It is relatively cost-effective.

Nachteile

Sometimes it is a bit slow. It can sometimes be challenging to have all the needed data to access a patient's insurance coverage.

Vorteile

We absolutely LOVE being able to see VSP patients at our office. Since we are not a VSP provider we do not have access to the patient's benefits. Patch enables us to get a patient's VSP benefits.

Nachteile

The time it takes to "pull" the benefits.

Vorteile

I tried Patch for a month. The website is always down. If not then you are left messaging back and forth with their operators with no results. It was a good sell but a worthless service. I made the mistake of buying a year's service but when I realized it was worthless I offered to pay them 2-3 months but to get a partial refund. They refused. Therefore I don't want other doctors or practices to make my same mistake. It is just a an expensive lesson in futility. Don't wast your time or money!

Nachteile

All of it! It not worthy your time, your staff's time, your patient's time and definitely not your money!

Vorteile

I could finally tell my customers how much they will get reimbursed so they could understand the true cost of their services. Before all I could do is tell them to call VSP, as you can imagine that strategy was not effective.

Nachteile

So far it has been easily to understand, and eligibility checks have been successful. The customer support is there when I don't understand a certain feature, and answers any questions I have. Sometimes eligibility checks take more time, but normally quick.

Vorteile

I can see VSP members with no problem ...

Nachteile

its slow and cant find some members Insurance

Vorteile

Its easy to use, so user friendly, very helpful, and also the customer service is great. I like that if you have a question you can chat live.

Nachteile

Sometimes it take a long time to get the information you're trying to get, but usually pretty quick.

Vorteile

Able to capture out of network patients and explain their benefits in an easy way. Easy to use, and was able to communicate within a minute whenever we had an issue.

Nachteile

No negatives. Platform was easy to use, and patients received their money back in a short amount of time.

Vorteile

Being able to offer *some* kind of insurance benefit to my customers helps to keep them from going to a different optical.
The site/software is generally fast.
Your customer service is top notch

Nachteile

I know that it is not your fault, but VSP takes too long to load compared to other insurances. It is remarkably annoying. Is there any word on when full VSP functionality will come back online?
I see far too many patients that do not know what insurance they have. Some type of global search function would be great.
NOTE: I left the "Value for Money" section blank since I was not involved with with its purchase

Vorteile

It is extremely simple to use and can be used when speaking to new patients on the phone to see what they're benefits are.

Nachteile

Adding addresses - you have to type it in exactly how it appears in google or sometimes it will not recognize it as a valid address

Vorteile

having the out of net reimbursement show first helps determine an overall price without going thru the whole claim

Nachteile

Most patients do not know the name of the vision provider so we are unable to help locate that for them in this system

Vorteile

Ease of use. Quick claim filing. Fast retrieval of the patient's o-o-n benefits and the ability to tell the patient what they can expect in reimbursements.

Nachteile

Can sometimes be difficult to locate plans that are not the primary insured.

Vorteile

Instructions for use and billing is very easy to use. People like the fact that we can bill Eye Med or VSP and they receive a check whatever they are reimbursed.

Nachteile

I haven't used it enough to have any comments about what I like least about the software. The couple of times I have used it. everything went well. I had no problems.