Dear Doctor,
EssilorLuxottica recently sent many doctors letters feigning surprise and indignation about reimbursement changes in VSP’s formulary. They want you to think VSP is limiting your choice.
But in fact …
No one offers more choice than VSP. The real choice to consider is whether you want to align yourself with a company that uses you and your practice to generate profits for shareholders or one that uses profits to reinvest in you and your practice. Make no mistake. EssilorLuxottica loves to talk about supporting choice — as long as it’s a choice they control.
Put simply, VSP’s formulary includes virtually every frame, lens, and contact lens available in the industry today – no matter who makes it. We include EssilorLuxottica products in our formulary. They exclude VSP’s products from EyeMed, the company they own.
And remember, VSP is a not-for-profit that reinvests the majority of its revenues (86% in fact) to benefit doctors. EssilorLuxottica is a publicly traded company that paid out more than half of its nearly $3 billion in operating profits in 2019 to shareholders – not doctors.
Ultimately, EssilorLuxottica’s top priority is market dominance, not choice. It eliminates choice by buying out competitors. The book “Cornered” characterized it this way: “What Luxottica provides is one of the more dramatic illustrations of the march to monopoly.”
VSP approached EssilorLuxottica multiple times before announcing this decision on our formulary changes. Don’t believe them when they tell you we didn’t. And ask yourself, if someone misleads you about the little things, how can you trust them on the big things? EssilorLuxottica’s letters were fiction, not fact.
Sincerely,
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