Eye on Expansion: Vision centers grow with new university employee benefits

Although the move to a much larger office had been planned for several months, it couldn’t come at a better time for Georgetown Vision Center.
After 11 years at 1601 Chapel Hill Road, Dr. Shelley Williams is moving the center in May to a 4,000-square-foot facility at 2200 Forum Blvd.

The move comes at a time when her practice has jumped 40 percent, thanks mostly to the University of Missouri starting a vision care plan for its 12,000 benefit-eligible employees Jan. 1.

“We increased 40 percent over last January, and 80 percent of that growth is from university employees,” Williams said. “We’ve had to add two new staff members and are looking to add another two.”

Georgetown is one of nine eye care providers in the Columbia area accepting the VSP plan offered through MU. VSP coverage is available only to providers owned and operated by an optometrist or ophthalmologist, said a company spokesman at the firm’s Rancho Cordova, Calif., headquarters. Large chain-operated providers, such as Pearl Vision or Crown Vision, are not eligible.

The Eye Care Gallery, at 3301 W. Broadway Business Park Court, had the good fortune to open in November. “Probably half to two-thirds of our patients are VSP business,” said Linda Wilkinson, a retired teacher helping her daughter, new optometrist Karen S. Wilkinson, start her practice.

“We’re getting tons more of business,” said Allison Ziker of Robert J. Stutter’s office at 3215 S. Providence Road. “We are really busy. We have had to add two people to our staff. We are seeing people who have not had eye exams for some time. We’re really not surprised at the increase, but we are very happy.”

The growth may have a double edge to it, however, warns Williams. “The university employees we saw before were private pay; now we are seeing them at 25 to 30 percent discounted fees. We’ll have to look at it after three or four months and see where it all ends up,” she said. “It’s great that the university has a vision care plan because a lot of people skip it. Some people I see have not had a vision exam in 10 or 15 years.”

Columba area employers other than the university also offer the VSP plan; Williams and has accepted VSP insurance plans for 16 years, here and at her earlier practice in Texas. “While a lot of other vision plans are restrictive in what you can sell, this plan gives patients a dollar amount to spend. They can chose whatever they want and apply the allowance to it,” she said.

VSP insists providers maintain a certain level of equipment, and the company audits the services provided under its plan, Williams said.
The MU policy provides for a $10 co-pay for an annual eye examination and set amounts for frames and lenses. Monthly premiums are $13 for an employee and spouse and $26 for an employee, spouse and children.

The VSP Web site said it is one of the country’s largest firms offering vision care plans, with 26,000 providers and 47 million insured patients. Annual 2006 gross revenue is listed at $2.4 billion.