Integrate Easily-Accessible Vision Benefits With A Medical Plan

Increasing value, attracting and retaining employees, and managing costs are attainable goals for any employee benefit package. Choosing a medical plan that includes an annual comprehensive eye exam, or adding vision care to a medical plan, helps ensure employers achieve their health plan goals.

Eye Health Connects To Overall Health

Integrated and easily-accessible vision care can change the health, wellness, and lives of employees. Eye health has a clear connection to a person’s overall health, making regular eye exams and access to vision care critical. Eye exams provide a unique opportunity to help detect and diagnose serious health conditions, including certain cancers, diabetes, and heart disease. Discovering these conditions in the early stages can help to maintain your employees’ health and potentially reduce overall healthcare costs.

Increasing Health Equity Through Vision Care

Directly providing better, more convenient vision care to employees is key for overcoming treatment obstacles and promoting health equity. Decreased ability to see often leads to the inability to drive and read, substantially affecting quality of life and a person’s overall health and well-being. Educating and supporting at-risk populations about eye disease, vision loss, and the need for eye health and vision care services is also vital for better organizational health.

New Technology And Telehealth Are Changing Eye Care

Today, the rise in online tools and telehealth is changing how employees manage and access their vision care, making eye exams and needed treatment more accessible, affordable, and convenient. With the explosion of telehealth , virtual care is here to stay, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Many employees embrace or prefer this type of interaction. Similarly, more patients are opting for virtual eye doctor visits and online exams.

While not a complete replacement for comprehensive in-person testing to evaluate eye pressure and diagnose eye disease, most online eye exams consist of a refraction or eye chart test or address a specific vision concern. More than two-thirds of all workers, and nearly three-quarters of those under 40, say having access to technology and tools for virtual visits would make them more likely to schedule a routine eye exam. In between visits to the eye doctor, some patients are turning to eye health apps to help with vision testing, screening, and managing ongoing eye conditions. Virtual eyewear “try-ons” that allow consumers to visualize their glasses before purchase are becoming commonplace.

Integrating Vision Benefits Supports Better Outcomes

Integrating high-quality vision care that features useful new technologies into their overall health plans helps employers maximize benefit offerings. Online enrollment, portals, and mobile apps, like Sydney^SM Health, improve employee education and engagement, connect to in-person and virtual care, provide personalized action plans, and ultimately drive better outcomes. As the workforce continues to evolve, more flexible and innovative vision benefits combined with connected high-quality medical plans, will help employers attract and retain top talent, as well as reduce costs and boost a healthy and more productive workplace.

Sydney Health is offered through an arrangement with Carelon Digital Platforms, a separate company offering mobile application services on behalf of your health plan. ©2020-2022  The virtual Primary Care experience is offered through an arrangement with Hydrogen Health.