According to the Vision Council's 2008 report, Vision Care: Focusing on the Workplace Benefit, vision disorders cause nearly $8 billion in productivity losses each year. To help address these productivity losses, reduce healthcare costs and improve employee loyalty, employers should take a closer look adding a vision plan to their voluntary benefits strategy. MetLife's new white paper, Seeing Eye-to-Eye on Vision Benefits, offers a practical guide for what employers should consider when choosing a vision benefit. To download a copy, visit metlife.com/visioninfo.
Vision benefits are highly valued, with 76% of consumers saying that a vision plan is very or somewhat important to them, according to the Jobson Optical Research report, 2011 Consumer Perceptions of Managed Vision Care. In addition, according to MetLife's 10th annual Employee Benefits Trends Study, 51% of surveyed employees overall are interested in a wider array of voluntary benefits; that percentage jumps to 57% for Gen Y and Gen X workers. Adding vision coverage to an existing voluntary benefits plan can help ease the burden of employees' financial stress due to rising healthcare costs and help reduce long-term costs due to serious health problems for both employees and employers. Vision plans can also provide extra value to employers—these plans typically cost one-tenth of medical benefits, according to the Vision Council's Vision Care: Focusing on the Workplace Benefit report.
"Because so many people are depending on their employers to help them with their financial security, it makes sense for employers to add a vision plan into their voluntary benefits," said Michael Schwartz, vice president of Dental and Vision Products for MetLife. "As a voluntary benefit, vision can be part of a benefits strategy that helps successfully leverage non-medical benefits as a way to attract and retain employees. It can also save employees money by providing them with the care they currently need, preventing costlier issues that may occur down the road through early detection."
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Eye exams are an important part of overall wellness. They're the first step to correcting vision problems that can impact productivity, as well as providing early detection and monitoring of serious health problems like diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol—helping reduce overall healthcare costs. According to the Human Capital Management Services (HCMS) study, Vision Care Investment Pays Big Benefits, for every 100 employees with early detection of diabetes through an eye exam, an employer can save as much as $110,000 in healthcare costs in the first 24 months of identification.
There are some easy steps that can be taken to ensure that a vision plan provides the most benefit. Employers should look for a vision plan that offers:
- Flexibility for employers so that they can choose from a variety of plan designs for the one that best fits their needs. This includes the choice of service frequency, exam copay, materials copay, and frame/contact lens allowance.
- Convenience and choice for its members. The plan should offer an extensive, high quality network of licensed eye care professionals including ophthalmologists, optometrists, and opticians who work out of full-service private practices and retail chain locations. Additional savings will apply when using an in-network provider.
- Industry-leading standard features in addition to employee decision support tools and wellness programs.
- Ease of administration with integrated, simplified implementation as well as billing and customer service, by adding a vision plan alongside another new or existing benefit plan.
Improving Employee Loyalty and Productivity
Incorporating a vision plan into an existing voluntary benefits strategy can help both employers and employees. According to the MetLife study, over half of employees say that having non-medical benefits, such as vision, dental, disability, and life insurance, strongly influences feelings of loyalty towards their employer. Unfortunately, employers may not be making this connection—the study found that only 32% of employers believe that non-medical benefits strongly influence employee loyalty. Adding a non-medical voluntary benefit such as vision to an employer's benefits package should help influence an employee's feelings of loyalty to an employer. This is important for employee retention because the study also found that one in three people would like to work for a different employer in 2012.
In addition to improving employee satisfaction, employers can also leverage their vision plans to increase productivity. According to the Vision Council's report, Vision Care: Focusing on the Workplace Benefit, for every $1 spent on vision coverage, employers can gain as much as $7 through fewer absences and higher levels of productivity. The study also found that uncorrected vision problems, which affect an estimated 11 million Americans, can decrease employee performance by as much as 20%.
Opportunity for Small Businesses
Despite the high percentage of people who believe vision coverage is important, the MetLife study found that only 48% of employers across the country with 100 or less employees offer vision insurance. This large disparity shows the opportunity that is available for small businesses to become more attractive to employees by offering vision insurance. While larger businesses are doing better at capitalizing on the demand for vision insurance, 83% of employers with 500 or more employees are offering vision as a voluntary benefit, they may still have room to maximize the value of their benefits plans.
Vision insurance is simple to implement and should be considered as part of an overall strategy to meet the needs of a diverse workforce as well as the company's bottom line and talent retention objectives. To learn more, download the MetLife whitepaper Seeing Eye-to-Eye on Vision Benefits at metlife.com/visioninfo.
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