Optometrist: industry payments
Drug and device makers reported $163,729,044 in payments to providers registered in this specialty across Open Payments program years 2019–2025.
- Providers
- 51,595
- Received a payment
- 51,584 (100.0%)
- Total reported
- $163.7M
- Average, those paid
- $3,174
The average is computed only over providers who received something, because including the 11 who received nothing would produce a number that describes neither group. Totals are dominated by a small number of large royalty and consulting arrangements; the typical payment in this specialty is far smaller than the average implies.
What Medicare pays optometrist clinicians
Across 29,578 optometrist clinicians who billed Original Medicare Part B in 2024, Medicare allowed $1,293,382,250 in total — an average of $43,728 each, of which $43,723 was for services and the rest for drugs administered in the office.
This is not a salary. The rest is what Medicare allowed for services these clinicians billed — Original Medicare fee-for-service only. It excludes Medicare Advantage, which now covers more than half of Medicare enrollees, along with Medicaid and every commercial insurer, so for most clinicians it is a fraction of their practice. It is also gross revenue: staff, rent, supplies and malpractice premiums all come out of it before anyone is paid. Anyone quoting a figure like this as physician pay is misreading it.
By state
| State | Providers | Total reported | Per provider |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 6,778 | $24,305,128 | $3,586 |
| Florida | 3,166 | $13,228,744 | $4,178 |
| Texas | 4,315 | $13,182,760 | $3,055 |
| New York | 2,743 | $8,085,533 | $2,948 |
| Ohio | 1,995 | $7,786,533 | $3,903 |
| North Carolina | 1,326 | $7,416,952 | $5,593 |
| Pennsylvania | 2,165 | $7,061,964 | $3,262 |
| Illinois | 2,257 | $6,376,772 | $2,825 |
| Georgia | 1,285 | $5,777,859 | $4,496 |
| Kentucky | 712 | $5,219,399 | $7,331 |
| Arizona | 1,134 | $3,829,218 | $3,377 |
| Indiana | 1,318 | $3,795,438 | $2,880 |
| Michigan | 1,523 | $3,682,805 | $2,418 |
| Oklahoma | 714 | $3,583,189 | $5,018 |
| Tennessee | 1,122 | $3,364,047 | $2,998 |
| Washington | 1,267 | $3,264,232 | $2,576 |
| New Jersey | 1,357 | $2,993,689 | $2,206 |
| Virginia | 1,230 | $2,924,939 | $2,378 |
| Missouri | 1,030 | $2,619,176 | $2,543 |
| Oregon | 684 | $2,572,884 | $3,762 |
| Alabama | 749 | $2,471,908 | $3,300 |
| Kansas | 567 | $2,442,546 | $4,308 |
| Nevada | 494 | $2,373,965 | $4,806 |
| Colorado | 1,025 | $2,303,865 | $2,248 |
| Massachusetts | 1,084 | $2,256,553 | $2,082 |
| Maryland | 790 | $2,094,930 | $2,652 |
| Wisconsin | 867 | $1,712,159 | $1,975 |
| Connecticut | 574 | $1,638,972 | $2,855 |
| Louisiana | 500 | $1,611,963 | $3,224 |
| Minnesota | 826 | $1,515,725 | $1,835 |
| South Dakota | 206 | $1,444,497 | $7,012 |
| South Carolina | 653 | $1,355,119 | $2,075 |
| Utah | 423 | $1,018,597 | $2,408 |
| Idaho | 304 | $888,532 | $2,923 |
| Iowa | 559 | $827,645 | $1,481 |
| Mississippi | 372 | $822,677 | $2,211 |
| Rhode Island | 226 | $775,199 | $3,430 |
| Hawaii | 310 | $706,521 | $2,279 |
| New Hampshire | 235 | $671,442 | $2,857 |
| Arkansas | 442 | $633,022 | $1,432 |
| Nebraska | 383 | $562,865 | $1,470 |
| Wyoming | 102 | $477,525 | $4,682 |
| West Virginia | 210 | $410,366 | $1,954 |
| North Dakota | 179 | $403,164 | $2,252 |
| New Mexico | 228 | $292,872 | $1,285 |
| Delaware | 146 | $205,050 | $1,404 |
| Alaska | 163 | $178,404 | $1,095 |
| Maine | 224 | $176,950 | $790 |
| Montana | 184 | $102,740 | $558 |
| District of Columbia | 71 | $99,349 | $1,399 |
| Puerto Rico | 236 | $74,307 | $315 |
| Vermont | 80 | $55,849 | $698 |
| AE | 17 | $11,909 | $701 |
| AP | 15 | $5,395 | $360 |
| AA | 2 | $3,044 | $1,522 |
| ZZ | 3 | $1,604 | $535 |
| Guam | 6 | $1,060 | $177 |
| U.S. Virgin Islands | 4 | $871 | $218 |
| Northern Mariana Islands | 2 | $73 | $37 |