Introduce the offering, educate on the importance, and promote the value and savings!
Employees value vision benefits! Research shows that 87% of workers are more likely to stay with a company that offers high-quality vision benefits. Support your clients in their recruitment and retention efforts by offering high-quality vision coverage! Studies show that access to high-quality vision benefits can influence an employee’s decision to stay with your company or accept another job. In addition to a comprehensive checkup, employees are looking for vision benefits with many coverage options. This includes an annual allowance for eyeglasses and contacts and assistance with LASIK procedures. However, as desired as this coverage is, employers have found that they sometimes go utilized. But why? It boils down to education and financial concerns.
Workers are still struggling with financial problems experienced during the pandemic. They may be tempted to put off scheduling an eye exam to save money, but doing so could lead to eye and health problems. Studies show that only 25% of employees with vision insurance take advantage of preventative eye exams, which most plans cover. About 14% of employees use their vision benefits yearly to purchase prescription eyewear, and 10% use their coverage to purchase contacts. Due to the relatively low cost, most employers extend this coverage as an employer-paid benefit. Alternatively, for employers unable to allocate vision into their budget, the flexibility of offering vision as a voluntary benefit is huge, as it allows the employee to pick up the cost through payroll deduction. Help your clients see the difference by offering vision benefits, creating awareness, and offering education on the options available to them!
Like a regular fitness program, vision insurance promotes good health. Many employees complain about headaches and eye problems from using digital devices. Researchers found that 31% of adults report viewing screens constantly. On average, workers spend 172 minutes (about 3 hours) daily checking work emails and 149 minutes (about 2 and a half hours) reading personal emails. (Many people also spend five to six hours on their phones outside of their work hours.) Spending this much time on digital devices can lead to vision and health problems, such as fatigue and lack of focus at work. It is estimated that employee vision problems cost businesses $272 billion yearly in lost productivity. As the agent, this is your opportunity to shine!
Help your clients and their employees understand how vision benefits work and why they are so important to utilize. Offering vision allows employees to schedule regular eye exams each year and keep their eyes healthy. These exams are considered preventative care, and plans typically cover most, if not all, of the cost. During the exam, the eye doctor can identify vision correction needs, changes inside the eye, and preliminary stages of eye diseases, such as glaucoma, cataracts, macular degeneration, and diabetic retinopathy. The doctor also may detect eye changes that reveal medical problems, such as high blood pressure, some cancers, and high cholesterol. About 10% of Americans, or 34 million people, have diabetes. For nearly 20% of people, signs of diabetes were first detected during an eye exam. Annual eye exams can catch the vision and potential medical issues at an early stage, helping to reduce illness and treatment costs. Let us put your clients back in control of their business, health, and overall, well-being by including vision as a standard benefit option, alongside health, and educating them on all they can gain by utilizing the benefits. EMG is here to help!
A few additional facts to understand the impact Vision Insurance can make:
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