AOA, affiliates take on VBM lobby’s attacks on optometry

Vision benefit managers (VBMs), called to account over their lobbying group’s unprecedented, livestreamed smear against America’s doctors of optometry, respond to AOA leadership as advocates’ reform efforts build. 

During an Arkansas Senate public hearing on Feb. 18, livestreamed nationwide, the lead industry representative for the National Association of Vision Care Plans (NAVCP) conveyed extreme opposition to the state’s VBM reform efforts by stating: “If I can be blunt, all optometrists are salespeople—that is how optometric practices make their money.” 

Doctors should be aware that despite these attempts to demean doctors of optometry, Arkansas’ new VBM law was formally signed on Feb. 25.   

In consultation with advocacy-minded doctors in Arkansas and other states, the AOA took immediate action aimed at ensuring such a false and malicious attack could never again be used by the VBM industry, whether in other states or Washington, D.C. The AOA Board of Trustees contacted every company publicly connected to the NAVCP to provide an opportunity for each to make clear their own position on the NAVCP’s lobbying claims and tactics. It was made clear that each reply or refusal to reply would be reported directly to America’s doctors of optometry. 

The AOA letter reinforced: “Given the leadership role you maintain with the NAVCP, and the level of financial, directional and policy support that role indicates, and in the hope of maintaining a productive dialogue, we extend this opportunity to explain this testimony and similar statements, hostile lobbying tactics, organizational policies and other actions—including active lawsuits and threatened lawsuits targeting optometric associations. So that the American Optometric Association (AOA) and our affiliates may fully inform our concerned colleagues exactly where you stand regarding our skills, training and education, the care we provide and our standing in our communities and the health care system, a written reply is sought from you no later than March 3.” 

The correspondence asked each member company representative to respond to four simple questions:   

1. Do you and your company support the NAVCP’s disparaging public statements, made at this and in other policymaking bodies or organizations?
   
2. Is NAVCP speaking for you and your company when it asserts that optometrists are “salespeople” in the health care arena?
   
3. What corrective steps, if any, do you, your company and NAVCP plan to take in regard to the testimony?
   
4. Do you and your company intend to continue forward in leadership roles and as an NAVCP member?

What do companies listed as NAVCP members say? 

Each company that the NAVCP lists as a member of its organizational leadership was contacted and given ample opportunity to reply. Their responses are accessible below unless otherwise noted as not responding. 

• Aetna – Did not respond 
• CooperVision – Response in progress 
• EssilorLuxottica/EyeMed 
• EyeQuest – Did not respond 
• Fidelity Security Life Insurance Company – Did not respond 
• General Vision Services – Did not respond 
• National Vision – Did not respond 
• Shamir Lens 
• SKYGEN – Did not respond 
• UnitedHealthcare
• Unum – Did not respond 
• Vision Benefits of America 
• Versant Health 
• VSP Vision 

For its part, the NAVCP issued a response to the AOA board, noting that, “the testimony of February 18 should have been articulated differently” and stating, “We deeply value quality eyecare and recognize the crucial role that optometrists play in delivering exceptional patient care.” While this acknowledgment is noteworthy, the NAVCP has continued to provide testimony against vision plan legislation since the Arkansas hearing.   

What is the NAVCP? 

Heading into Arkansas and gearing up for activity in other states, an industry-funded lobbying group came prepared to lay out a contrary view.   

The NAVCP has emerged as the central opponent to bipartisan efforts in state capitals and Washington, D.C., to crack down on VBM abuses. The NAVCP works against the AOA-backed Dental and Optometric Care (DOC) Access Act, as well as VBM reform bills at the state level, including those recently enacted in Texas, Oklahoma and Illinois. Public disclosure filings, news accounts of legal challenges and other reports on the influence activities of the NAVCP and its member companies point to lobbying and legal costs running into the tens of millions of dollars and involvement of nationwide networks of lobbyists and attorneys.  

William T. Reynolds, O.D., AOA trustee and Advocacy Committee chair, observed: “In spite of the NAVCP’s vast resources, our AOA and our affiliates are outworking our opponents and we are winning new supporters in Congress, state legislatures and the media.  Also, thanks to our coordinated advocacy that’s focused squarely on policy change and VBM accountability under the law, as well as our strong alliances with Patients Rising, the National Consumers League, the American Dental Association and other important organizations, optometry is doing more than ever to set the agenda and force the other side to defend outrageous tactics. We must and will keep at it.”   

AOA, affiliates’ VBM advocacy for optometry achieving results  

Despite the disparaging comments, the Arkansas Optometric Association (ArOA) secured a critical win for the state’s doctors of optometry. But the ink had hardly dried on Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ signature when VBM representatives began inviting themselves into doctors’ offices to say Act 142 is bad for their business, says Matt Jones, O.D., ArOA legislative co-chair.  

Want to get involved? Visit AOA’s Action Center to urge your House and Senate members to co-sponsor H.R. 1521 or text “DOC” to 1.855.465.5124, and save the date for AOA on Capitol Hill, Sept. 28-30, in Washington, D.C.