EYECARE: Eye Health Spendwell: A Unique Type of Exchange By John Sailer Monday, April 20, 2015 12:02 AM RELATED CONTENT Private Exchanges to Radically Transform Health Insurance How Will Private Exchanges Impact Optometrists? Vision Care’s Place in the Realm of Private Exchanges Initially launched in 2012 as a direct-to-consumer marketplace, Spendwell has morphed into an e-commerce platform in which consumers can spend defined contributions provided by their employer. Not a private exchange in the sense that consumers can select health insurance plans from the website, Spendwell is instead an online marketplace where people can shop and buy health care services directly from providers. Bill Gaynor, senior vice president, sales & corporate development, told Vision Monday, “We are the ‘buy-it-now’ button,” explaining that consumers can shop among providers listed on the Spendwell site using funds already provided by their employer’s defined contribution to their health care. For example, Davis Vision is among Spendwell’s partners, which means that all of this managed vision care company’s providers are inventoried for consumers to choose from on the online marketplace. Eligible services, prices, what’s covered, and what’s not covered by the patient’s employer or health plan are all listed on the Spendwell site. “We’re in the early stages of our controlled release, working with several innovative employers and health plans in major geographies that want to provide consumers with an e-commerce experience,” Gaynor said. “While our providers are in 31 states, our consumers are pretty much in six states, and those consumers are affiliated with either an employer or health plan that is our partner,” he explained. In addition to Davis Vision, Spendwell also partners with another vision plan, but Gaynor could not disclose the name. How might this impact eyecare professionals? “It will allow them to focus more of their time on delivering care than managing receivables and collection risk,” said Gaynor, explaining that there is zero risk to the provider of getting paid because it is 100 percent pre-collected. “This frees up staff administration time to allow them to be more clinical and patient-centric.” Spendwell’s e-commerce platform is designed to cut costs by partnering with employers and health plans.