Survey: Eye Exams Cut Costs

Providing annual eye exams for group health plan enrollees can help detect costly chronic medical problems early.

Marketers at Vision Service Plan Inc., Rancho Cordoba, Calif., have released that finding in a summary of results from an analysis of its own customers’ group health experience.

VSP hired an outside firm to client employers’ claims.

Firm researchers assembled 2 years of data for 5 large commercial clients with 90,000 health plan enrollees. The researchers then compared the claims of patients with chronic conditions identified during regular, VSP-provided eye exams and the claims of patients with chronic conditions whose conditions were identified via ordinary medical exams.