VSP Signature *NO* Choice
It seems that VSP wants to "help" me choose the closest lab for my signature choice patients, and therefore will not allow me to order from *any* other lab other than closest. :angry:
So now I have to choose a lab I have no relationship with that does not do my preferred (Shamir) progressives and may or may not do any kind of quality work :angry:
And if I hate them, I still have to use them even if they stink. :angry:
How can I/we fight this bogus requirement?
John
You have the option of opting out of the signature choice program. I did. No regrets. I take all the other plans and am happy with them and using an approved VSP lab a few states away.
I thought choice meant you had to use one of the labs owned by VSP. Those labs must do EVERYTHING, so I think they are overwhelmed with all the products available, like with your choice of shamir product. Myself, I like the essilor product so use a VSP approved lab that is an essilor "partner" lab and has it's own crizal facilities.
Harry
If you order Crizal you will be routed to the closest lab that is approved by VSP for in-house Crizal. Do to a glitch in the system they are not routing you to the closest lab but they are routing you to the lab with approval for premier coatings. There are other VSP labs waiting to be authorized that will be closer and they are working on it. VSP admits their goof. We just had to open an account with a lab in NC to do one job. They are rushing the order and doing everything they can to make it convenient but still. VSP cannot fix the glitch in Eyefinity right now. We spent two days on the phone trying to make it work and no can do. They are working on it. Until then Signature Choice patients are going to be routed in a way that makes no sense IF you order a premium coating.
can't you choose, in the lab part "private invoice" to use your own lab
You can choose your own lab, but and VSP will not do a chargeback, but they will also take away your dispensing fee, if I understand correctly. That can work for a stock SV lens with stock ARC, but generally does not pay on progressive lenses with premium ARC added.
I don't usually order Crizal coatings, since the lab of choice has in house Zeiss coatings. I will have to experiment with different ARC's to see if it gives different lab choices.
As people get more info on when VSP will fix "glitch" that I would love to know!
John
Drop VSP! (and all insurance!)
IMHO, VSP, like all eyewear insurance, does nothing but *devalue* eyewear. Even though I’m “just an optician”, it doesn’t matter that I can’t participate in the VSP provider network. More important is that fact that I *don’t want to*!
Follow my reasoning with the following:
VSP wants to provide their members with a vision benefit. In this case, like all other insurance, they do so by providing a *discount* on eyewear (and eyecare) for them. And why not? Doesn’t *everyone* want to pay less for their eyewear? Well, no. This starting premise is only valid if you also agree that the public *doesn’t * want eyewear, in any form, at all. In fact they’ll do everything they can to avoid eyewear, i.e., contacts, refractive surgery, not-buying-new -eyewear-unless-there-is-an-Rx-change, etc.
You get my point.
Now, the lens manufacturers and the frame suppliers *all* (and this is important, ALL) get their full price $$$ on their products in any insurance transaction.
Why then, are the ECPs (and participating labs) so privileged to be the chosen ones to subsidize the member’s eyewear discount?
Why?
Well, its just the same thing as extortion. The message whispered here is “If you don’t participate, you won’t see these patients”.
(Is the pain I'm feelin' my arm being twisted behind my back?)
Total nonsense! VSP, and all insurance , only (further) devalues eyewear in the public’s mind. I can think of no instance where excellence of product or care is the goal through insurance. In fact, most of my clients are *never* happy “where their insurance *makes* them go.”
Its a free country. Make your own choice!
Barry
a little bit if the lens has a C class AR. We were having to send everything to one of Essilors less than stellar labs. We started requesting Super Hi Vision and all of a sudden Hoya Dallas appeared out of nowhere. The lab will call us and tell us they can't put that coating on a Shamir lens and we will change it over the phone, but VSPs program doesn't know its not a possibility and seems to give you a different set of labs based on the coating.
Good luck to you!
:cheers:
Days where my gratitude exceed my expectations are very good days!
No. You don't.Originally Posted by john-atlanta
You only have to use them if YOU feel you must.
Drop VSP and enjoy your re-found freedom and autonomy. Remember how you felt the day you were licensed? Was taking guff from some third party player the dream you had in mind?
It's time for us all to take control of our own destinies and the destinies of our patients.
With all due respect to some of you, dropping VSP is not an option for many private practice offices. If we dropped VSP today we would be closing the doors in a year. There are much worse third party insurances than VSP. It butters our bread. In Michigan, in this economy you don't get too arrogant. VSP it is until we know we can survive without it.
I was told that the way it was set up was by zip code closest to your office. I was further told to bad for you if the lab that came up you didn't have an account with you had to open one. They did say this was the way it was going to be. I was further told by my regular lab, that if VSP decided they didn't "like" a certain lab they would be removed from the eligible list. Also Essilor labs were removed since they put up such a stink about Avance.
We didn't have a choice if we wanted to use a vsp lab. We had decided to use Columbus since our Gift of Sight work was good, that we would use them for our Choice work. We were told it was too far away and that is why they removed from our list
Not happy..We are using Columbus's ar so we can have them do the work..
christina
Yes, until you realize that it's not your bread that's being buttered.
Ophthalmic Optician, Society to Advance Opticianry
Sadly, this is true. There is hope IF an office is willing to make the radical changes necessary to attract private pay patients instead of attracting vision plan patients. I do not think most offices are even able to identify how deeply engrained a vision plan mentality is in their office staff and owners.
I agree. It's not my office, not within my ability to make such changes. I would prefer the private pay only route but doing that now would mean losing our collective butts here. The owner comes form a chain of stores that were very much 3rd party oriented and made a ton of money doing it. I come from small privately owned offices that were customer service oriented and made a ton of money. But that was all back in the day. This business and the world around it have changed and to survive we do what we have to do.
stop taking it!
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