|
VSP Case Study
Get What You Bargained For
VSP outperforms other eyecare providers and delivers the results you bargained for
In a culture obsessed with getting a lot for a little — everything from "Club Cards" to "Europe on $10 a day" — most everyone is looking for the best value.
Whether it's to help employees stretch their benefit dollars or to trim corporate budgets, benefits managers are pressed to offer a package that makes employees happy for less. But many are finding that even though purse strings are tight, results still matter.
So how do companies decide what's important when looking for an eyecare benefit? Quality or value? Some benefits managers have discovered it's hard to have one without the other.
Take, for example, FCI USA, Inc., one of the world's top manufacturers of electronic connectors and interconnect systems used with everything from automobiles to computers.
According to Susan Stopa, Director of Compensation & Benefits, FCI switched from VSP to a competitor's benefit to save money and offer employees greater convenience with access to retail optical providers. Prior to the switch, FCI had shared the cost of eyecare coverage premiums, but in July, 2003, they started a voluntary, employee-pay-all plan.
"Our business was hit very hard by the economy," says Stopa. "We still wanted to provide quality benefits while saving on cost."
Louisiana-based Shaw Group, a leading provider of engineering, procurement, construction and manufacturing services, faced similar challenges.
With approximately 11,000 eligible U.S. employees located in 35 states nationally, Corporate Benefits Manager Garin Danner wanted a doctor network that could serve his employees regardless of location.
"I absolutely did comparison shopping," says Danner, who experimented with two other national vision plans before finally settling with VSP.
When Quality and Quantity Matter
In both cases, FCI and Shaw Group employees soon experienced problems with the limited doctor networks of the plans they had chosen. That's when Stopa and Danner began receiving employee complaints.
"With our previous vision carrier, there were places in the U.S. where the network lacked," Danner says. "We switched companies but I still got a lot of complaints that there were not enough providers. Therefore, employees had to go out-of-network and outside their benefit, getting hit hard with out-of-pocket costs."
And what about cost — the reason they switched in the first place?
Stopa found that VSP was actually within pennies of the competitor. "We were prepared to go to our employees and say, 'You asked for VSP and here it is, but you'll have to pay $5 more per month.' But VSP wasn't $5 more, it was very competitive."
Danner, meanwhile, found that the VSP plan, in many cases, was actually less expensive.
"My wife and I wear progressive lenses. When I added up the amount we paid annually under the old plan as compared to VSP, it's actually cheaper with VSP.
At present, FCI and Shaw employees are happy and report more than 50 percent enrollment in their voluntary VSP plans. "Having 7,000 out of 11,000 eligibles on a fully voluntary plan obviously tells me that our employees think very highly of VSP," says Danner.
Stopa agrees. "We listened to our employees, and we're very pleased with the quality of this plan."
Worldwide Employee Benefits Network, Inc.
© 2009 All Rights Reserved
|
