FederalDaily - November 8, 2006
VSP Tops Survey’s Customer-Satisfaction Rankings
J.D. Power & Associates released its new ranking of national managed vision care plans last week,
rating VSP—one of three companies offering new federal employee vision insurance—at the
top of its customer satisfaction survey. The study, now in its second year, measures the satisfaction
of national vision plan members based on five performance factors. VSP ranked highest among eight vision
plan providers in the survey and received the highest ratings from customers in coverage and communication,
cost, eye doctor network and purchase experience. Spectera and Davis Vision, which provides the federal
Blue Cross Blue Shield vision plan, came in at sixth and seventh place, respectively—posting
below the survey’s industry average. Cost of the plans varies, according to the Office of Personnel
Management Web site, which lists each of the plans' pricing and coverage details. The standard option
for employee/family costs $25.83 a month for Blue Cross Blue Shield, $16.55 for the Spectera plan and
$24.85 for the VSP plan. Each offers varying amounts of coverage. To see more, go to: www.jdpower.com/global/press-releases/pressrelease3.asp?ID=2006236
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Senators Urge EPA to Reopen Shuttered Libraries
A contingent of senators urged House and Senate leaders to force the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) to reopen a series of research libraries that are being closed in a budget-cutting effort to
save $2 million. The group, led by Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., noted
in a Nov. 3 letter that EPA has already eliminated or reduced library service in seven EPA regions
covering 31 states and is in the process of closing its specialized library for research on the effects
and properties of chemicals. The libraries provide research assistance for EPA scientists, who now
have fewer resources to conduct thorough analyses on hundreds of new chemicals for which companies
are seeking agency approval. The EPA plans to shutter 10 percent of EPA’s network of laboratories
and research centers, which currently employ about 2,000 scientists. “We are concerned that EPA
is already dismantling its unique library system without including the public or members of Congress
in the decision-making,” the letter said. “Congress should not allow EPA to gut its library
system.” To see more, go to: http://boxer.senate.gov/news/releases/pdf/2006/11/EPAlibrary.pdf
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Boxer Seeks Probe into Recruiting Irregularities
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., has asked Secretary of the Army Francis Harvey to look into reports
that Army recruiters are giving misleading information to potential recruits. She also asked in a Nov.
3 letter that Harvey order a national recruiting stand-down—similar to one he ordered last year—to
drive home to senior leadership and military recruiters that such behavior is not sanctioned. Boxer
cited a television news investigative report that said nearly half of the recruiters it profiled allegedly
knowingly provided misleading information to potential recruits about the risks of enlisting in the
Army. Boxer said one news clip showed a recruiter “telling a recruit that the United States is ‘not
at war,’ and that the ‘war ended a long time ago.’” Boxer said it was “not
the first time that recruiters have been accused of going to extraordinary—and in some cases,
I believe—illegal lengths to meet enlistment quotas.” To see the letter, go to: http://boxer.senate.gov/news/releases/record.cfm?id=265698&&
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