Essilor Strengthens Position in Managed Care

Through an EyeMed partnership and a recent acquisition, Essilor is strengthening its position in the managed care market. In its latest move, it acquired a majority share in Classic Optical Laboratories. Vision Monday reported that "Essilor has purchased a majority interest in Classic Optical Laboratories, a Youngstown wholesale laboratory that specializes in managing high-volume contracts for insurance organizations, managed care organizations, union organizations and trust funds, educational institutions, correctional facilities, manufacturing plants, and federal and state government programs, VMail has learned." Read more.

This acquisition comes a few weeks after Essilor tied into the new business "model" for Luxottica's EyeMed launched earlier this summer. That means for an optical shop "to participate in EyeMed’s network, providers will need to use EyeMed’s defined lab network.  The network...[will] include more than 120 labs including Essilor of America Labs, Essilor Partner labs and the Walman Optical family of businesses, including Walman, Soderberg, Harbor, Toledo and Rite-Style  The independent and Essilor partner labs will account for about half of the network by the end of 2013. Dallas-based Luxottica Lab Services is another lab option within EyeMed’s network. Providers can register for multiple EyeMed network labs and can change network labs at any time. For providers who want added flexibility, providers may use their own equipment for EyeMed’s single vision In-Office Finishing program. With this feature, providers receive an additional single vision dispensing payment," said a EyeMed spokesperson in an email to this blog, basically repeating what the company said earlier.