Costing employees just a few dollars a month for individual or family coverage undoubtedly consigns vision to the bottom of some broker's "to sell" list. There just isn't enough money in it to get all worked up about it, some say.

But other advisers are taking a broader look at the current employee benefits market and see more clearly the value of vision - not only for the employee, but also the employer and of course the group broker.

"We look at vision now much differently than we did even two or three years ago in regards to the importance that an employee would maybe put on that particular program," says Patrick Tibbs, agency manager for MMA Employee Benefit Services, an arm of Goshen, Indiana's Mennonite Mutual Aid.

Whose Bottom Line Is It Anyway?

It's less about dollar signs for Tibbs than it is about understanding the plight of the typical employee he aims to cover for his clients.

"Things have changed so much for employees in regards to costs. Not only the health care cost of benefits, but just overall costs that employees are having to deal with outside of work. I'm talking about gasoline prices, groceries - just the cost of living," Tibbs says.

It's all forcing the employee to take a really hard look at what's coming out of their paycheck. Vision benefits can provide immediate and intelligible cost relief.

It also makes good on often promised cross-benefit preventative opportunities.

"A vision check may be one of the few times that an employee may go see a doctor for some kind of check up," Tibbs says. Couple that with the fact that many vision benefits are easy to comprehend and that the check-ups rarely - if ever - involve drills or needles and before a company realizes it, they're catching medical mole hills before they morph into hospitalization mountains.

One such opportunity to catch medical costs before they multiply is with diabetes. When blood glucose levels remain too high for a long period of time, changes can occur in the tiny blood vessels that supply the retina of the eye. This is known as retinopathy. Such damage is often difficult to detect. Regular vision checks help make sure the problem doesn't get out of hand, which could lead to blindness.

It's the "win-win," according to Tibbs.

Keep it simple

He says vision can be simple for everyone involved. From carrier to employee, and everyone in between, there is no reason for confusion when it comes to vision benefits. He admits that runs counter to the prevailing trend in benefits.

"People expect it to be more complicated than it is. And it's not," Tibbs says. "I think that's the most surprising thing that we have to sometimes undo. Employers, HR, agents, benefit professionals, brokers I think we all and the industry have become very specialized and it's become very complex. Vision is a breath of fresh air because it is so simple and it's so simple for the employees to understand and to use."

It's simple for Tibbs as well because he's cultivated a fruitful relationship with VSP, and only VSP. He'll work with other carriers, nothing is stopping him from doing so, except his experience of course. And it's been a positive experience at that, he says, recalling the five years he's teamed with the carrier.

"I've just had a very good comfort level in regards to the service and the benefit that they have provided, though I know there are some [other] good carriers out there," according to Tibbs.

His firm works with about 150 employers, offering the whole menu of employee benefits - major medical, vision, dental, other voluntary products, as well as administration services. The agency's mix of business clients includes car dealerships, manufacturers, businesses related to the recreational vehicle niche, as well as dental and medical practices, churches and sole proprietorships. Case sizes range from four to more than 200 lives.

"We just wrote a four-person vision group," he says.

And when they do write programs participation is also good.

"We'll get anywhere form 65% to 75%," according to Tibbs.

The last big enrollment he did was for his firm's parent organization - Mennonite Mutual Aid.

While focused on the value of vision, his agency isn't blind to what drives revenue in group benefits. They do major medical with the majority of their accounts and then work downwards, adding vision, dental and some of the other ancillary programs.

Comprehensiveness is the goal.

"That's our goal to try to become that solution for our businesses," he says.

But not everyone is buying

As good and as easy as Tibbs may make vision sound, not everyone is buying. He says that's due in part to the general anxiety and uneasiness employers and individual employees have about the economy.

"Especially small businesses. In certain sectors that I'm seeing they are quarter-to-quarter right now as far as running their business," Tibbs says.

That's forcing him to adjust. One way he's tacking to better meet client needs is being hyper-mindful of employee time off the job - and that includes benefits education and enrollment meetings.

"[Employers] don't want to have five meetings a year, it costs them too much money," he says. It doesn't matter how many benefits are being offered, the advantage goes to the adviser that can successfully communicate the programs in just one or two meetings and can integrate them into the company's existing program expertly and efficiently, according to Tibbs.