Marge Axelrad
Editorial Director
Convergence is when a few different forces or trends come together at an intersection of sorts, when several independent trends create a junction. As a result, the formerly independent streams can be transformed, or at the very least, can impact or restructure the other(s).
Attendance at last month's National Association of Managed Vision Care Plans (NAVCP) conference and the publication this month of VM's signature annual "Top 50 U.S. Optical Retailers" raised several interesting questions of convergence to this observer. Chiefly, the convergence of eyecare and eyewear, how optical's eternal dual role is starting to contribute directly to the financial and competitive future of the business in new and interesting ways.
First, the NAVCP, though in its infancy as a group, has already had enormous impact, based on individual initiatives of its members -- among them the largest managed vision care companies in the country. Whether you're an independent ECP or a chain executive, you have a common experience in dealing with the need to fulfill the eyecare and eyewear needs of covered patients. You know how undeniably important managed vision care is to your top-line sales and to your bottom line. It is in the managed vision care arena that chains and independent providers, in most instances, are critically linked together to serve a base of covered patients.
Second, the composition of the list of the 50 largest U.S. optical retail players reveals that selling eyeglasses, contact lenses and sunglasses is only part of the story. Revenues from eye exams as well as from refractive surgery are major contributors to the overall economic power of most chains today. The role of the affiliated eyecare provider is taking on new importance in the chain sector. And how well chains of today, both national and regional or local, can tend to the total eyecare needs of tomorrow's patients - both younger, single-vision ones and aging boomer, complex-vision ones, is one of the more compelling issues coming down the pike.
Our report this year includes a new 'top-line' view of the optical products and vision care services marketplace, from Jobson Optical Research. We have traditionally portrayed our take on the size of the industry by a look at the total retail value of the market for vision correction solutions -- eyeglasses and contact lenses. With improved measurement capabilities through the Jobson/VCA VisionWatch survey, we are now presenting a more comprehensive view of the 'whole' and are putting out a total $ value on not only the retail market but encompassing the value of eye exams and refractive surgery as well. The result is a much larger 'pool' of revenues.
Definitions of the scope of 'vision care,' tactics to provide access to that care, and the related dispensing of vision correction products are changing. The convergence will continue to blur old lines and conventional boundaries between 'independents' and 'power players' and usher in a new era of transformation for the eyecare business.