In many communities across the nation, access to routine eyecare for low-income patients may be a challenge. With more than one in four Americans enrolled in Medicaid—making it one of the largest health insurance programs in the country—the need for primary eyecare for this population continues to grow.
For Suparna Bajaj, OD, the care gap became clear early in her career while working in a community health center, where she regularly saw patients who had gone years without a comprehensive eye exam. This wasn’t because they didn’t value care, she says. The issue often stemmed from long wait times for appointments and a lack of education about how eye health connects to overall systemic health.
IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME
Dr. Bajaj graduated from Western University of Health Sciences College of Optometry in 2021 before caring for local patients at Community Health Centers of the Central Coast. Her time there exposed her to how frequently patients, particularly those on Medicaid or who were low-income or Hispanic, encountered barriers that delayed care. Waitlists for appointments could stretch months, and additional delays for optical services often meant patients returned only when symptoms became difficult to ignore.
By the time patients were seen, conditions such as cataracts, dry eye disease and other ocular changes had often progressed. Over time, she began to see a consistent pattern: the challenge was not simply socioeconomic status. It was a lack of patient education about the importance of eyecare as a facet of healthcare, combined with structural delays in publicly funded care systems.
“It wasn’t that patients didn’t care,” she says. “It was that they weren’t always given the time or context to understand why regular eyecare matters beyond getting glasses.”
Dr. Bajaj decided to address that gap directly. In March 2025, she opened Core Optometry in Santa Clarita, California. While providers existed elsewhere in the city, many do not accept Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program. That led to patients navigating longer wait times and fragmented care pathways.
Today, roughly 65% of Core Optometry’s patients are Medi-Cal or low-income patients. Dr. Bajaj says the goal was never to segment care based on insurance type; it was to build a model centered on equal access and consistent education.
At Core Optometry, all patients are scheduled in 30-minute comprehensive exam slots, regardless of payer. Every exam includes fundus imaging, and a significant portion of the visit is dedicated to explaining findings in clear, approachable language. Many patients arrive having never had a comprehensive eye exam or only seeking updates to eyeglasses, Dr. Bajaj says. They are unaware that underlying medical conditions may be present or progressing.
EDUCATION IS KEY
Education is central to the model. Dr. Bajaj uses the exam as a teaching opportunity, walking patients through refractive error, ocular health and systemic connections in real time. Rather than rushing through results, she prioritizes understanding and makes sure patients leave with a clear sense of what was found and why it matters.
Many practices do not have the capacity to provide such detailed education or they allot specific slots to Medi-Cal patients, Dr. Bajaj says. She intentionally structured her schedule to reduce delays to care by making slots available to all patients.
She also focuses on her communication style. During exams, Dr. Bajaj is sure to maintain eye contact and repeat complex findings, even while charting patient notes. At the end of each visit, she asks patients if anything remains unclear. This step, she says, often reveals how rarely patients have been invited into a full conversation about their own eye health.
“Many patients tell me that they’ve never been asked detailed questions before,” Dr. Bajaj says. “They’re used to being given a load of information and being told to absorb it with no further explanation.”
Over time, Dr. Bajaj says, the approach builds continuity. Patients who initially come in for eyeglasses often return for follow-up medical care. Entire families begin to engage in care together, and parents schedule appointments for themselves or their parents after their children are seen.
That ripple effect has become one of the defining outcomes of the practice: care that begins with one patient often expands across generations within the community.
Dr. Bajaj’s broader message to other providers is that Medicaid-heavy patient populations do not inherently mean lower engagement or weaker practice performance. In her experience, outcomes are more closely tied to education, access and consistency than payer mix.
