Optometrist visits are easy to neglect. If you can see clearly, why bother taking time off work to get your eyes examined? You know you will just end up spending an insufferable 45 minutes or so in some sterile waiting room, just for an appointment that takes all of 15 minutes.
"That process can take hours," acknowledged Alexa Baggio. "That's a really big chunk of time to have people do with ease on a regular basis. … It leaves people neglecting to the very last minute. Everyone is scrounging to find a doctor, and there are just easier ways to do it."
The proof of that is Project 2020, a startup incubating out of PayPal's co-working space Start Tank. What Project 2020 aims to do is deliver cost-neutral, on-site eye care to companies and their employees via a mobile eye clinic. Think food trucks for the optometry industry.
"We want to be able to spread preventative health care services to the masses," said Baggio, the startup's director of operations and business development. "There are a lot of health risks around not getting vision care."
Although this idea of mobility isn't a new phenomenon — in New Hampshire, health center Families First launched Mobile Health Care in 2003 — Baggio noted "it hasn't taken off in a scalable way." Project 2020 is fully covered by existing health insurance, however, so it comes at no additional cost to employees. The state-of-the art "eye truck" also turns a painstaking hour-long process for a full comprehensive eye exam into a convenient 15 minutes.
"For the employer, it's a great way to ensure that people are taking advantage of the benefits they're already paying for," Baggio said. "It's a really easy way for them to say, 'I have a vision plan and I provide it for my employees.'"
Project 2020 makes its money through insurance reimbursement, which means businesses can book the eye truck for free. Although the service isn't expected to hit the streets until August, several companies have already signed on board, including some of the city's largest pharmaceutical and biotech companies, where employees are expected to be in the office all day.
Once Project 2020 officially launches, Baggio said their goal will be to perfect the service and "protect what [they're] trying to provide in Massachusetts."
Yet, what they're trying to provide goes beyond a service for the everyday nine-to-five companies. "We'd like, for example, to provide eye exams and free eyeglasses to every kid in the Boston Public School district in the next few years," Baggio added.
So far, the company's overall mission has been met with a positive response.
"It's been fortunate so far," Baggio said. "We're all in this because we see the bigger vision here."
