Membership plans are not just a trend; they’re a strategic shift in how modern optometry practices operate. In a world where subscription models dominate industries from streaming to fitness, Direct OD is helping eye care professionals harness the same concept to boost profitability, reduce insurance dependency, and strengthen patient loyalty.

In a recent Defocus Media podcast, Dr. Darryl Glover sat down with Cody Tomasik, founder of Direct OD, to explore how this platform simplifies the creation and management of customized membership plans for optometry practices. The conversation revealed why recurring revenue in eye care is an untapped opportunity, and how practices can implement it without increasing administrative burden.

Recurring revenue is everywhere, Netflix, Amazon Prime, gym memberships—and consumers have grown accustomed to paying monthly for services. In optometry, the traditional “recurring” model exists mainly through insurance premiums. Patients pay insurers, who reimburse practices, often at rates that frustrate doctors. Tomasik, whose family has deep roots in independent optometry, saw a gap:

Direct OD was designed specifically for eye care professionals, allowing practices to create their own plans that meet patient needs while keeping revenue in-house.

Many doctors have tried creating in-house membership plans before, but ran into administrative chaos—billing issues, compliance challenges, and staff overwhelm. Direct OD handles:

This plug-and-play approach means practices can focus on care, not backend management. The doctor sets the plan terms, and Direct OD manages the rest.

Creating a membership plan starts with understanding your patient base. Direct OD allows you to design up to 15 benefits per plan, tailored to your services and pricing structure. For example:

Since the practice owns the plan, it can be customized for different patient groups—adults, children, seniors—or even for niche specialties like dry eye or myopia management.

One of the biggest reasons many in-house membership plans fail is the administrative load—tracking billing, chasing declines, managing compliance, and ensuring consistent communication with patients. For a practice running even 100 members at $25/month, the workload can quickly require additional staff, erasing much of the profit.

Direct OD eliminates that problem. The platform manages:

At the end of each month, practices receive a direct deposit of their recurring revenue—no extra hiring, no operational disruption.

This hands-off model also makes it easy to expand beyond individual patient plans. Practices can create business-to-business (B2B) plans for local companies, offering affordable vision benefits to employees and strengthening community relationships. These business plans can be tailored for employee demographics, giving small businesses a unique, high-value benefit that keeps their staff local for eye care needs.

Direct OD also removes the guesswork in promotion. The platform includes a marketing center with pre-designed flyers, editable templates, and website integration options, allowing practices to launch their membership plans with professional materials in minutes. By pairing easy-to-use marketing tools with a plan the doctor created themselves, conversations with patients and businesses become more natural, confident, and persuasive.

Direct OD’s analytics dashboard gives practices a clear view of how membership plans are performing—tracking enrollment growth, patient demographics, benefit usage, and revenue trends. With this insight, practices can see which plans resonate most, identify underperforming options, and make informed adjustments without disrupting current members.

This data becomes especially powerful when applied to specialty services that patients may hesitate to commit to because of high upfront costs—such as dry eye treatments (IPL, LipiFlow), myopia control programs, ocular aesthetics, or specialty contact lenses. By spreading these services into monthly payments, practices reduce financial friction, increase treatment adherence, and improve patient satisfaction.

Analytics help pinpoint exactly which benefits and services patients use most, allowing doctors to fine-tune specialty plans for maximum value. Whether it’s adding more frequent follow-ups for myopia control or bundling maintenance products for dry eye care, data ensures that every plan is tailored to meet patient needs while boosting recurring revenue for the practice.

While CareCredit is a short-term financing solution requiring credit checks, Direct OD is a subscription-based model with no loan application. Patients pay for access to benefits at your practice, and those benefits cannot be redeemed elsewhere. This exclusivity:

Insurance rarely inspires patient loyalty—doctors do. When patients pay you directly for benefits, they are more invested in staying with your practice. As Tomasik put it:

Over time, these plans shift revenue away from insurers and back into the practice, creating financial stability and independence.

Direct OD offers a modern business model that blends patient affordability with practice profitability. By creating membership plans for optometry practices and managing the administrative workload, Direct OD empowers eye care professionals to:

For practices seeking a competitive edge, recurring revenue isn’t just an opportunity—it’s the next logical step in practice management.