NAVCP is focused on three pillars of performance:
- Encouraging efficiencies in the vision industry through administrative simplification initiatives, such as our successful Universal Credentialing Alliance program (see below).
- Advocating at both the federal and at the state level to ensure operating environments in which our member companies can thrive and Americans can maximize their vision health.
- Providing a platform for cooperative industry collaboration that respects the business needs of its individual members.
Corporate and Allied members help shape initiatives under each of these pillars. Active participation in -- active ownership of -- all facets of NAVCP mean better programs, a better association.
Administrative Simplification
Administrative costs for managed vision care plans and eye care professionals are a significant contributor to the cost of healthcare. Both in dollars and in time. NAVCP and its members actively explore solutions to lessen this necessary burden.
NAVCP's Universal Credentialing Alliance is the association's solution for simplifying provider credentialing for both managed vision care (MVC) plans and eye care professionals. NAVCP also is exploring strategies for achieving efficiencies by streamlining non-proprietary data collection, network development, provider directory information accuracy and more. The association is a leader in simplifying healthcare administration.
NAVCP Universal Credentialing Alliance (UCA)
The NAVCP Universal Credentialing Alliance (UCA) was launched on Dec. 1, 2015 to achieve three key objectives:
Align the credentialing dates of providers that participate in multiple MVC plan networks.- Drive out redundant primary source verification (PSV) costs for MVC plans.
- Reduce administrative workload for eye care professionals.
UCA has successfully cut the expected credentialing cost for a provider in half by:
- Using a single, uniform credentialing application format that allows providers to enter in their information one time instead of for every plan.
- A uniform approach to PSV.
- Creating a more efficient and common re-credentialing schedule across MVC plans.
Currently, more than 57,000 eye care professionals are credentialed or will be re-credentialed through UCA. Nine MVC plans participate in the alliance and more are expected to join soon.
What are the Alliance Members Saying?
Since helping found the Alliance, UnitedHealthcare Vision has improved our operations, achieved cost savings, and had additional opportunities to collaborate with other Alliance members. Our overall cost to maintain compliance and ongoing sanction monitoring is significantly lower than it was pre-Alliance, in part due to dividing the provider recredential file costs among the participating vision plans. In addition, best-practice sharing among Alliance members has helped us simplify our internal processes and reduce provider on boarding time.
For more information about participating in the alliance, please contact Carol Kurtz at [email protected].
"Vision impairment and eye disease are major health problems in the U.S. But, unlike cancer or heart disease, everyone will eventually face vision issues and need correction just from the simple act of aging."
Federal
NAVCP’s Federal Advocacy program continuously monitors activities in our nation's capital with an eye on our member’s legislative priorities. We stay on top of any pending regulatory and legislative change so we can move quickly to make certain the industry's voice is part of the discussion. Weekly advocacy updates ensure member companies are informed. And can effectively engage when the need arises.
To ensure that legislators and regulators listen not just meet, we communicate regularly with them and their staffs through in-person visits, fund raisers, responses to requests for ideas, written testimony and formal correspondence. Our annual Capital Caucus event further enhances that relationship-building by bringing together NAVCP members and high-ranking legislators, administration officials, regulators and media that cover politics. Face-to-face, interactive discussion with policymakers means association brand recognition and understanding about how decisions can impact our industry and the millions of Americans that need vision care.
State
NAVCP also keeps tabs on the pulse of legislative and regulatory activities in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia. Working closely with our members, NAVCP annually identifies the issues that limit access to vision care, drive up costs and add unnecessary complexity to the marketplace – network adequacy, any willing provider statutes, directory requirements, to name just a few. Then we target key states for focused advocacy – states nearing introduction of legislation both favorable or unfavorable to industry business practice.
We work to make our members’ collective voice heard through strategic initiatives that engage association-retained counsel, state association partners, and industry allies, by delivering testimony, and conducting grassroots advocacy. We also work to make the industry’s voice louder and more compelling through active participation in national and state-level, policy-oriented organizations, such as the National Council of Insurance Legislators, the National Association of Insurance commissioners, Women in Government and others.
Industry Collaboration
As the unified voice for the managed vision care industry NAVCP provides a forum for cooperative industry collaboration on initiatives that work to preserve and strengthen consumer access to affordable vision insurance and benefits. Member collaboration plays out through annual events, committees, councils and workgroups.
In addition to the annual Capital Caucus event mentioned above, NAVCP hosts the annual Vision Care Retreat. The event brings together vision industry leaders to interact with subject matter experts to identify strategies that will allow NAVCP to better position vision care as essential healthcare. Roundtable topics are determined by attendees. Consumer trends, employer perspectives, healthcare innovations, the latest on federal and state healthcare public policy and regulation, and more drive discussion, stimulate advocacy, inform strategy.
NAVCP's Provider Council program is expanding dialogue and understanding by better involving eye care professionals from a variety of practice settings. Regular in-person and online interactions throughout the year are offering valuable insights to MVC plans and providers alike. The association is now exploring the viability of a similar initiative with vision industry retail organizations.