MASON, Ohio—EyeMed Vision Care is readying the launch of a white paper later this month, which will aggregate various data sources and provide insights to ECPs to illuminate the opportunities and challenges presented by vision benefits and which will examine the consumers and patients who use them. The whitepaper, to be unveiled at Vision Expo West next week, will feature data from EyeMed’s book of business, a vision care consumer study the company sponsored, as well as multiple sources and third parties like NAVCP, The Vision Council, AHIP, the CDC, Kaiser Trust Health Research and more, the company said.

EyeMed, the vision benefits company which is part of Luxottica Group, is headed by Lukas Ruecker. Ruecker told VMAIL, “The impetus for this white paper has been our discussions with ECPs and our clients. We are passionate about access to vision care and we are committed to providing solutions which can validate the value of vision care to our members. We think this white paper can be a reference point, and a starting point for dialogue and discussion with ECPs about today’s consumers, today’s patients. It encompasses a broader perspective and sheds light, we feel, about how to better understand consumers and patients who are covered by vision benefits and how that understanding can help their practice.”


Lukas Ruecker.
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Ruecker added, “There are clear, long-term values of a covered patient to the practice, ranging from more frequent eyecare visits to greater material purchases. And, while many employers are feeling squeezed by overall health care costs to providing coverage for their employees, vision care coverage is continuing to grow.”

EyeMed is the second largest vision care plan in the U.S. and the company now covers 52 million patients, Ruecker pointed out. He noted, “We hope this initiative will be the start of a different type of dialogue and we are prepared for people to read and examine it and learn what vision benefits mean today. I will be at our Vision Expo West booth, along with others from our leadership team, and we hope ECPs will stop by, engage with us, pick up a copy and spend time with it.” The paper will also be posted the week of the show on the EyeMed portal, he said.



Joe Wende, OD, EyeMed senior medical director said, “Optometry has evolved over the past 30 years, and so have eyecare consumers. We’ve seen a lot of data and studies, including our own, that when looked at holistically, reveal a different story angle for ECPs about the MVC patient. We think the paper can help them better understand today’s MVC patient, market growth among these patients, the influence of employer’s needs and the care patterns and interests of the MVC patient segments so that ECPs can best serve and retain them.”


Joe Wende, OD.
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Wende also pointed out, “As a whole, MVCs have been influencing Americans to change their eyecare behavior, and it’s working. The studies we highlight show MVC patients visit their eye doctors more often, purchase new eyewear more frequently and select higher quality lens options and treatments when they do. This benefits the entire eyecare industry—and the public health. I invite independent ECPs attending Vision Expo West to stop by our booth (#16026) where we can go over the facts about MVC plans and EyeMed in their practice—then they can draw their own conclusions about how MVC plans, and EyeMed, might fit into their business plans.”