FYidoctors, one of Canada’s largest independent eyecare services company with more than 400 optometrists servicing over 210 locations between its corporate-owned locations and its Vision Source Canada franchise locations, announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with VSP Vision Care Canada. This partnership will provide FYidoctors access to Canadian patients covered by VSP’s vision insurance.
FYidoctors and VSP have created a joint venture that is owned in equal parts by each organization. This new company will combine VSP’s strong employee benefits platform, with FYidoctors extensive network of independent optometrists across Canada, including its Vision Source Canada franchise locations.
“The landscape of Canadian healthcare, and optometry more specifically, is changing rapidly and we must remain relevant to our patients. This joint venture with VSP will allow us to create a value proposition that will encourage patient access to our clinics across the country,” says Dr. Al Ulsifer, founder and CEO of FYidoctors. “This venture provides our optometrists with the ability to have more control over their own destiny, despite current and future competition, and ultimately helps to preserve standards of eyecare in Canada.”
VSP’s role in the joint venture will be to market, sell and administer its vision care insurance platform to employers, big and small, across Canada. In turn, employees from these organizations will now be able to seek care from FYidoctors’ network of optometrists as well as its Vision Source Canada franchise locations. FYidoctors will also, subject to strict criteria, allow access to independent eye doctors outside the core of FYidoctors’ companies.
“FYidoctors was founded on the premise of improving eyecare in Canada and ensuring doctors define what an eye exam looks like. Unfortunately our industry has been under tremendous pressure to lower standards due to the commoditization of eyecare products and services by various competitors. This joint venture is truly, uniquely Canadian, and unlike any other model in the world,” Dr. Ulsifer continues.
The company reports that preferred provider networks, contrary to common belief, exist between Canadian employers and online optical companies or optical chains, but none with independent optometry, until now.
Ulsifer concludes, “FYidoctors did a great deal of due diligence on many potential partners and we found that VSP’s platform, combined with this unique partnership, offered the best fit for us to be able to enter into the world of vision care plans, while maintaining control over decisions related to optometry, fees and standards of care.”
