Corneal and Contact Management Optometrist: how many are there, and how many are in private practice?

National totals

What this specialty covers

The professional activities performed by an Optometrist related to the fitting of contact lenses to an eye, ongoing evaluation of the cornea's ability to sustain successful contact lens wear, and treatment of any external eye or corneal condition which can affect contact lens wear.

Reading the sole-proprietor share

For this specialty, 640 records, or 23.7%, carry the sole-proprietor flag in NPPES. Because that field is self-reported, it is an imperfect proxy for private practice: it does not by itself show whether an optometrist owns a practice, works independently, or provides services through an organization. Use it as a business-structure indicator rather than a direct count of private-practice clinicians.

By state

New NPI registrations by year

Counts reflect the year each NPI was first issued, among records still active today. The final year is partial: this data covers through 2026-01-11.

Data notes

• The sole-proprietor field is self-reported by the provider in NPPES and is an imperfect proxy for private practice.
• A sole-proprietor count shown as <11 is suppressed: the true value is below 11, which could include zero.
• NPI counts do not necessarily equal the number of currently practicing clinicians, offices, or service locations.
• Taxonomy and sole-proprietor fields are NPPES-reported and may not fully reflect current services or business structure.
• State totals reflect the NPPES address, while enumeration-year totals show when an NPI was first issued, not when a clinician began practicing this specialty.
• Providers are counted once, by their primary taxonomy code only.

Source: CMS National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES) Data Dissemination file, FOIA-disclosable public data under CMS-6060-N. Aggregated by Hero EMR on 2026-08-03; deactivated NPIs excluded; specialty assigned from the primary taxonomy code (NUCC 25.1). Counts below 11 are suppressed. Individual providers are never published. All provider data pages.

Common questions