Danielle DeVoren, VSP member (Hoboken, NJ)

Today’s post comes from our East Coast friend and VSP member, Danielle DeVoren. She shares her experience with Hurricane Irene. 

This past weekend New York and the Northeast braced for one of the worst hurricanes in decades to hit its coast line.

New York (and in my case Hoboken, NJ) prides itself on being prepared, but are also often times over confident.  However, with the constant warning from city officials there was no mistaking it – it was imperative to lay low!

In the 24 hours leading up to Irene’s visit, grocery store shelves were ransacked and the flashlight became the hottest commodity in town while we braced for her wrath. In Hoboken, the city literally shut down in the early afternoon on Saturday.  Bars and restaurants were ordered to be closed by early evening, and ground floor apartments were subject to mandatory evacuation.

Living on the fifth floor, I just waited. There was true calm before the storm.  The air was muggy and smelled like the beach.  We waited… and waited… we watched the rain stop and start the wind pick and die back down.  By early morning on Sunday (when I woke up) the worst was over.  In cities like NYC and Hoboken, destruction was really on a block-by-block basis.  Some blocks were completely flooded and some left unscathed.  My block was somewhere in between, my apartment had a few small leaks in the roof (being on the top floor) and the basement of my building definitely collected some water.

As I watch the news, I realize how lucky I am, as some homes, cars and businesses in the Northeast were completely destroyed.  Some of my colleagues still don’t have power. So while for me personally it wasn’t as bad as predicted, I was impressed by how my community banded together to ensure our safety.

Special note to VSP members and doctors: 

• VSP Members: If your glasses were lost or damaged due to the hurricane, please call our member services support line at 800.877.7195 for reinstatement of your benefits, regardless of eligibility.
• VSP Doctors: If your practice has been affected due to the hurricane please call 800.852.7600, ext. 7373. We’d like to offer any assistance you might need so that you can provide care to your patients if you choose to do so.

Having access to vision insurance isn’t only through employers. VSP Vision Care offers individuals access to comprehensive vision coverage through it’s Individual Plan. Anyone in the U.S. can sign up to receive benefits that cover a comprehensive eye exam and glasses or contacts!   Through the Individual Plan, you get to select from over 22,000 VSP doctors nationwide that’s right for you. 

Don’t take our word for it, here’s what our Individual Plan members have to say:

“This plan is easy to use, convenient and quite affordable for my family,” said Dorothy Grubbs. “It’s the best eyecare plan we’ve ever had. My husband had VSP with a previous employer and we were so happy when it was available for individuals,” she added.

The plan was simple to use and a great reminder for my spouse and I to get an annual eye exam as part of our benefit, said Linda Farley. “It’s a great deal when we get the best care for our aging eyes, and we save money on the exam and new glasses every year,” she added.

With all the changes the economy has made to our lives, here is one thing we can hold on to.  Go to www.vspforyou.com to find out more about the plan.

Will B. works in VSP’s Customer Service department, part of our fabulous team that achieved the prestigious Service Quality Measurement, Inc. (SQM) Award of “World Class Customer Satisfaction” for the seventh year in a row! He shares his experience as a first time Mobile Response Team (MRT) member with the VSP Mobile Eyes® program.

I was fortunate enough to be selected to go on the last Mobile Eyes trip for 2009 and am quickly experiencing first hand, the work is truly some of the most rewarding work I have done with VSP.

We are half way done with our trip to Central California, and so far everything is running smoothly.  Before the trip, I had a general idea of what to expect.  I was impressed that we have most everything onboard that you would find in a VSP doctor’s office.  We can read the prescription off the patient’s current glasses, we can test for Glaucoma and even do an auto-refraction for the doctor.  The VSP doctors who come on board and provide the exams have everything they need to complete a comprehensive exam.  They even dilate patient’s eyes if they need to get a closer look.

Every patient we have encountered has been very gracious.  Many of our patients had either lost their glasses or their glasses were in disrepair.  Some patients had not seen an eye doctor for many years and in a few cases, had not visited an eye doctor for over a decade!  We have been thanked many times over for the service we are providing them. Our community partner has been equally thankful for the service we are able to provide.

So far, I have been able to pre-test patients, help with frame selection and submit orders on Eyefinity.  I have also learned how to set up and tear down the clinic. What a process!

It’s very rewarding to be part of the Mobile Response Team.  I feel a sense of pride working for a company that is actively reaching out to the community to provide a much-needed service, especially during a time when the number of people in need is greater than ever.  I am looking forward to the rest of our trip and many trips to come in the future!

Jill N. is a member of VSP's Corporate Public Relations team.

One of my first tasks when I came on board was to gather data to put together a 2008 recap for the VSP Mobile Eyes program. Through my research I also found numerous updates and testimonials from the disaster relief we provided. Now that we have embarked on another fire season in California I was curious to find out more about the specifics of how this sort of disaster relief is managed. Here is what I found:

VSP has a team of four employees who make up the Disaster Response Team. This team receives notifications of natural disasters across the United States through a variety of channels. This includes a range of not such hi-tech ways like self-observation, news stories on TV, online and radio or e-emails sent to the team from VSP employees, doctors, clients or members to more specific monitoring of disaster sites such as InciWeb. Once a notification is received, the team starts by researching the area and looking up VSP doctors who may be affected. Even it’s only one or two doctors, outreach support is immediately started.

The team attempts to contact our doctors in a number of ways. Depending on the amount of doctors in the affected area, initial phone calls are made and e-mails are sent out. The e-mails are sent not only to the doctors, but also to regional contacts who we ensure are aware of the disaster and are asked to forward any communication they receive from doctors who may be affected.

Once it is determined there is a doctor who has been affected, either by needing to close their office due to evacuation or if their office or equipment has been damaged, we work with them to provide whatever support they may need. For example, if a doctor has lost their office, we may able to offer our Mobile Clinic to them to use to service their patients or people in the community until their office is back up and running. If the clinic is not an option, we also have ten sets of portable ophthalmic equipment we can loan free of charge to set up in an area they can work for as long as they need it. Or if their office is not damaged but does not have electricity or access to the internet, we will work with them to ensure they are able to submit paper claims the same as they would online.

This year, we are also utilizing our new social media channels. These are used in a variety of ways, including as an extension for communication to our doctors and members, as well as to help monitor additional situations that may arise where our doctors need assistance. We had an example of this in July when a news report was reported on Twitter about an SUV driving through the wall of one our VSP doctor’s office. We were able to contact the doctor, ensure everyone was OK and offer assistance. Fortunately, the doctor was able to schedule repairs to the office fairly quickly enabling them to stay open for business as usual, but they were appreciative knowing they had options available if need be.

VSP's Mobile Response and Disater Response teams.

This year our Disaster Response Team has already responded to 15 disasters, including the larger ones such as the flooding in North Dakota, tornadoes in Mississippi and, most recently, the California wildfires. It is a good feeling knowing that the company I work for not only provides “insurance” that contributes to a positive quality of life, but it also provides “assurance” during times when it is needed the most.