How vision plans rig the eyewear market while keeping consumers in the dark

[Zorro]

People tend to think of the vision plans offered by employers as being like any other health insurance. They’re not.

The reality is that vision plans, headed by market leaders VSP and EyeMed, are primarily discount programs intended at least in part to promote sales of eyewear affiliated with each company.

“The vision plans expect you to get patients in, get them out, sell them glasses,” said Myles Zakheim, an optometrist with offices in Brentwood, Beverly Hills and Hollywood. “Their goal is to push as much product as they possibly can.”

Other health insurers may steer patients to specific drugs, say, but that’s because they have sweetheart deals with the drugmakers, not because the insurers themselves manufacture the drugs.

https://www.latimes.com/business/lazarus/la-fi-lazarus-eyewear-vision-plans-20190319-story.html

[SWBTATTReg]

1. I agree. Probably why not many businesses offer eyewear plans, because of this blatant...

commercialism, and not true concern about one's eyesight/needs.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Online glasses are incredibly cheap.

I use one site for my glasses, Mr. Dixie uses another site, both are excellent in pricing, accuracy of prescription, wide choice of frames, and also have contact lenses.
better yet, I have negotiated the already cheap price, to a lower price.

Both sites have insanely low price specials for first time buyers, as do other sites that I have not used.

Example.....My last eye exam was 30.00, of course the price of the lenses and new frames was high...400.00.
Special blue filter computer glasses, don'tcha know.

got them for 90.00....lenses and frame and filter thing. Came in nice clam shell case, with eyeglass cleaner cloth, 100% guaranteed, free shipping even for returns.

[JayhawkSD]

3. I had EyeMed for more than twenty years

I got my eyes checked by an M.D. eye doctor once a year. Cost for that: zero.

Each year, of course, I needed new lenses. I handed them the frames from the glasses I wore last year and they put new lenses in. Trifocal, with anti-glare, maximum infrared filter, anti-scratch protection. Cost for new lenses: zero.

Cost for Eyemed annual premium: paid by employer.

Okay, maybe I was really getting ripped off, but I cannot figure out how they were doing it. I got new glasses every year, they were great for my vision, and I never gave anyone any money. I wish everyone ripped me off in this manner.

[happy feet]

4. You're fortunate.

I've worn contacts, then glasses starting in my teens. Not once, have I had an optometrist who would take my existing frame and put in new lenses. I tried several years, even different places, no luck.

I have VSP and the cost of the glasses from the optometrist is ridiculous. I just recently bought a pair online and think I'll do that going forward.

[JayhawkSD]

5. That is the first time I have ever heard of that.

An optometrist who will not put new lenses in your existing frames? Not once in the fifty years that I have been wearing glasses have I ever heard of such a thing, nor have I ever heard of anyone experiencing it. No person with whom I have ever conversed has told me that the optometrist would not put new lenses in their present frames, in fact people doing that is a common experience. I have many friends who do it on a regular basis, with and without vision insurance.

What state and city do you live in?