Spectrum Vision Systems’ Preferred Vision Care (PVC) program has about 3,000 independent optometrists under contract to service approximately 1,350,000 members. (That number includes people employed by 5,000 companies and those employees’ dependents.) PVC, which is sponsored by about 40 insurance companies as well as employers, operates as a member discount program, according to the company’s chairman and chief executive officer Paul J. Disser. The contract with dispensers is a uniform contract in that every patient, no matter who his employer is, receives the same benefit. The... Read More

To the editor: Judith Lee’s column (Vision – Monday, Aug. 15), “Profitable Pricing Calls for Strategy” addresses an issue we have been dealing with in the independent professional sector for more than five years. Of the components comprising professional services marketing, the art of pricing is second only to promotion (advertising) in terms of sensitivity. If our results in working with/for independent optometry are any indication, the thought put forth in Lee’s column should be well-received. The ability to distinguish between product pricing and professional... Read More

Ancillary Products in the Health Insurance Industry; A Necessity In Today’s Uncertain Environment “As you may recognize by now, the market for vision benefits is ripe . . . the only remaining question is, Is it worth your time to sell?’ Maybe a more appropriate question is, ‘Can you afford not to sell it?’ ” by Paul J. Disser Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Spectrum Vision Systems, Inc. Paul J.. Disser is chairman and chief executive officer of Spectrum Vision Systems, Inc., an Overland Park, Kansas based PPO with more than 2,200 independent optometrists... Read More

TO THE EDITOR In your article, “Government Hopeful On Health Costs,” (Feb.19) you quote Donald W. Moran, associate director of budget, Office of Management and Budget, as saying “the marketer . . . can build in prevention in the price of the policy.” In giving Mr. Moran the benefit of the doubt as to why he made this comment regarding the price of health insurance, it is difficult not to agree with him. Indeed, the marketer can achieve the ultimate in prevention by pricing his policy so high as to make it unaffordable thereby rendering the distant benefits within... Read More