If you own an optometry practice, the most active buyers today are eye care groups backed by private equity that add practices one market at a time. Private equity firms also form new groups and invest in established ones, groups built around ophthalmology buy practices with optometrists on staff, and optical retailers and other vision companies buy practices and keep the doctors seeing patients. Some owners sell to an associate or partner optometrist instead.

What makes those buyers pay more is mostly predictable: several locations in one region, doctors who stay, medical eye care revenue alongside routine exams, patient volume that does not depend on you, clean billing and clean financials. That holds for multi-location groups too, and for practices with a busy optical shop or a medical eye care focus.

The short version

  • Who buys: private equity backed eye care groups, private equity firms building new groups, ophthalmology groups, optical retailers and other vision companies, and your own associate or partner optometrists.
  • What they pay more for: several locations in one region, doctors who stay, medical eye care revenue, patient volume that does not depend on you, clean billing and clean financials.
  • How deals can be structured: some groups invite the doctors to invest alongside them, and every buyer will ask how long the owner doctor will stay.
  • How to get the best result: put the practice in front of several of those buyers at once, confidentially, instead of taking the first offer that arrives.

Who has been buying optometry practices

The deals below come from public announcements. None of them is a Hello Exit transaction, and naming a buyer here does not mean it works with Hello Exit or is looking for any particular practice. They show who is active and how these deals tend to be structured.

An optometry practice is a licensed healthcare business, like a medical practice, a dental practice or a physical therapy practice. Those pages cover how buyers look at a practice where the owner also sees patients.

Private equity backed eye care groups

Many active buyers are optometry groups owned by private equity firms. They already run offices in several states and keep adding practices, often keeping the local name and doctors.

Groups also buy from each other. In September 2026, MyEyeDr. agreed to acquire the optometry division of EyeCare Partners, the St. Louis eye care company, with more than 300 offices under brands including Clarkson Eyecare, EyeCare Associates and Nationwide Vision. EyeCare Partners said it expected the sale to close in the fourth quarter of 2026 and would then focus on its ophthalmology and surgery center businesses. A group you join today can change hands later, which matters if part of your price is a stake in it.

Private equity firms building new groups

Private equity firms also form new groups from scratch. In November 2024, Kian Capital Partners and RF Investment Partners announced the formation of US VisionMed Partners, a Dallas management services organization for medically focused optometry practices. They invested alongside Lakewood Healthcare Capital and the practitioners leading each location.

Large firms back established groups too. In June 2026, funds managed by KKR made a strategic investment in FYihealth group, the Calgary, Alberta, parent of FYidoctors, which describes itself as a doctor-led eye care platform.

If private equity is your likely buyer, see how selling your business to private equity works.

Ophthalmology groups

Groups built around ophthalmology practices and surgery centers also buy practices with optometrists on staff. For example, Vision Innovation Partners, a Mid-Atlantic ophthalmology group backed by Gryphon Investors, acquired Eye Care of Delaware, an ophthalmology and optometry practice in Newark, Delaware, in June 2025.

Optical retailers and other vision companies

Optical chains and other vision companies buy practices too, and often keep the doctors in place.

Associate and partner optometrists

Some owners sell to an associate or partner optometrist who already sees patients in the practice, often with part of the price paid over time. Patients already know the new owner, which can make it the easiest transition. It is an option to compare against outside offers, not a replacement for testing them.

How selling an optometry practice works differently

A few things come up in optometry deals that rarely come up elsewhere. These notes explain what buyers will ask about; they are not legal, billing, tax or regulatory advice, so bring your own healthcare attorney and accountant in early.

Medical eye care and routine vision revenue

Buyers split your revenue into routine vision care, medical eye care, and eyewear and contact lens sales, because each is paid differently. Routine exams for glasses and contacts are usually paid by a vision plan or by the patient. Medicare, for example, says it does not cover eye exams for eyeglasses or contact lenses (Medicare.gov), while Part B covers a glaucoma screening once every 12 months for people at high risk (Medicare.gov).

Some buyers focus on medical eye care. US VisionMed, above, says it supports medically focused optometry practices that care for patients with more complex needs than a routine exam. Expect a buyer to ask how many of your visits are billed to medical insurance, which diagnostic equipment you own, and which doctors provide that care.

Vision plan and medical insurance contracts

Many practices bill two kinds of payers: vision plans for routine exams and eyewear, and medical insurers, including Medicare and Medicaid, for medical eye care. Expect a buyer to list every contract with its terms, and to ask whether each one can move to a new owner or whether the practice and its doctors will need to be credentialed again.

Vision plans run their own credentialing for the doctors who join their networks, as VSP’s application page for doctors shows. On the medical side, Medicare’s enrollment rules require physicians, other practitioners and their organizations to report a change of ownership within 30 days (42 CFR 424.516). Ask your healthcare attorney how each contract moves and how long each step takes, and plan the timing of closing around it.

The optical shop and its inventory

If you run an optical, buyers look at it as a business of its own inside the practice. The FTC’s Eyeglass Rule requires eye doctors to give patients a free copy of their prescription right after a refractive eye exam (FTC), so patients can buy their glasses anywhere. Expect a buyer to ask how many exam patients buy eyewear from you, what they spend, how frames and lenses are priced under each vision plan, and how much you sell in contact lenses.

Expect the buyer to count frames, lenses and contact lens stock close to closing, and to agree with you on what older stock is worth. In an asset sale, the IRS form that buyers and sellers use to report how the price is allocated treats inventory as its own class of assets (IRS instructions for Form 8594), so how it is counted and valued is a question for your accountant.

Your role and production after the sale

If you see patients, a buyer will ask how long you will stay, how many days a week, how you will be paid and how much of the practice’s production is yours. Many announcements say the doctors will keep seeing patients, as Shopko’s did in Minot.

Expect questions about each associate optometrist’s license, pay, schedule and plans, and any agreements they have signed. Some groups also invite the doctors to invest alongside them, as US VisionMed did, so ask what that stake could be worth later and how you would sell it.

Who may own the practice

Optometrists are licensed state by state, and some states also set rules on who may own an optometry practice and in what legal form. West Virginia’s optometry law, for example, says only licensed optometrists may own a business entity that practices optometry (West Virginia Code, chapter 30, article 8). Some buyers describe themselves as management services organizations that support practices, as US VisionMed does.

A buyer’s attorneys will check your state’s rules early, because they can affect how the purchase is structured, so have your own healthcare attorney do the same.

What optometry buyers pay more for

Every buyer looks at earnings first. After that, these are the things that most often move what an optometry buyer will pay and how much of the price comes at closing.

Several locations in one region

Offices close together can share doctors, opticians, front desk staff, inventory and equipment, and a buyer with offices nearby may see yours fitting into its own. A practice can also be a buyer’s way into a new state, as the Georgia practices were for InFocus Eyecare.

Doctors who stay

Patients are loyal to the doctor who examines them. Buyers look at how long your associate optometrists have stayed, whether they will stay after the sale, and whether the schedule holds up when one leaves.

Medical eye care revenue

Medical visits, such as a glaucoma screening for a patient at high risk, are billed to medical insurance rather than to a vision plan, and some buyers, like US VisionMed, focus on practices that provide that care. Track medical visits and revenue separately from routine exams, so a buyer can see them.

Patient volume that does not depend on you

Buyers measure exams per doctor and per day, new patients each month, how many patients come back on schedule, and how many see doctors other than you. If most patients book with you by name, a buyer is paying for a schedule that may not survive your exit. Owners whose associates see a large share of patients, and whose office manager runs the day, usually get better terms, with more of the price paid at closing and less tied to future results.

Clean billing

Routine and medical visits coded correctly, claims sent to the right payer, low denial rates and a clean audit history make the practice easier to underwrite. Gaps give a buyer reasons to lower the price or ask for added protections.

Clean financials

Buyers will ask for several years of financial statements and detail by office, doctor and payer: exams, revenue per exam, optical sales, inventory, collections, staff cost, margins, and personal expenses separated from business costs. Clean books make the practice easier to underwrite and harder to discount.

Why it pays to have several buyers at the table

The same practice can look very different to different buyers. A private equity backed eye care group may value your offices as a way into your region. A group built around ophthalmology may value your medical eye care. An optical retailer may value your optical and the patients who walk through it, and an associate optometrist may value keeping the practice independent. When you talk to only one of them, you only learn what that one will pay.

Putting the practice in front of several qualified buyers at once, confidentially, tests price and terms against each other, including how much comes as cash at closing and how much as a stake you keep. Buyers learn who you are only after signing an NDA, so doctors, staff and patients do not find out early.

Hello Exit is a sell-side M&A advisor for founders selling businesses from $1 million to $400 million, and it is the team behind 1,000+ acquisitions and exits. Every engagement starts from accurate information. Hello Exit’s Exit Report is an advisory estimate that shows the strategic case, where strategic buyers exist, and the financial case side by side, along with an honest read on readiness. If the business is not ready to sell, Hello Exit says so and helps you get there first.

See how the process works, from the first confidential call to closing, and what Hello Exit does.

Size matters too. Below roughly $1 million in value, a marketplace or local business broker is usually the practical route to a sale. Above $400 million, an investment bank is usually the better fit.

Before you talk to buyers

Common questions

Who buys optometry practices?

Mostly private equity backed eye care groups, private equity firms building new groups, ophthalmology groups, optical retailers and other vision companies, and associate or partner optometrists. Which of them fits depends on your size, your number of locations, how much medical eye care you provide and your region.

What happens to my vision plan and insurance contracts when I sell?

A buyer will review each vision plan and medical insurance contract and ask whether it can move to a new owner or whether the practice and its doctors will need to be credentialed again. Medicare has its own rules for reporting a change of ownership, so review the steps and timing with your healthcare attorney before you go to market.

Will I have to keep seeing patients after I sell?

Often for a period, so patients, associates and staff move smoothly to the new owner. Some groups also invite the doctors to invest alongside them. The more of the schedule your associate optometrists already carry, the shorter and lighter that commitment tends to be.

Is my optometry practice big enough for an M&A advisor?

Hello Exit works with businesses from $1 million to $400 million in value. Below roughly $1 million, a marketplace or local business broker is usually the better route.