NEW YORK—A recently announced plan by managed vision care giant VSP to reduce the number of labs in its nationwide contract lab network has prompted the owner of an independent wholesale optical laboratory in the state of Washington to file a formal complaint with state insurance and law enforcement officials and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

The complaint, the first of its type to surface, cites “insurance code and potential antitrust violations.” It claims VSP’s actions put the lab “at risk of being forced out of business.” The document was filed by attorneys for Nouveau Vision of Redmond, Wash., on Sept. 25 and sent to Washington governor Christine Gregoire as well as the state’s insurance commissioner, attorney general’s office and the FTC.

VSP is the largest not-for-profit vision benefits provider in the U.S. with 55 million members and a network of 26,000 private practice eye doctors. According to the complaint, “Given VSP’s market dominance, a laboratory’s ability to service VSP’s members is critical to staying in business.”

In July, VSP announced it will cut back its nationwide contract lab network by January from about 300 labs to “less than 300, but not substantially less,” according to a VSP spokesperson, who declined to state the exact number of labs affected by the cuts. When determining which labs to cut, consideration was given to a variety of factors, including the amount of VSP jobs processed, technical capabilities and geographic locations, Don Oakley, head of VSP’s Lab operations, said.

Nouveau’s complaint also takes aim at Essilor, claiming that the French company’s “potential domination” of the Washington vision care market is “the direct result of actions taken by its sometimes business partner, VSP.”

Essilor, the biggest ophthalmic lens maker and wholesale lab operator in the U.S., recently joined with VSP to acquire McLeod Optical, a Rhode Island lab, its first such partnership with VSP.

According to the complaint, VSP’s action, whether tied to “an express or implicit agreement with Essilor—raises serious antitrust questions, including potentially a conspiracy to monopolize portions of the eyecare market” which would result in “reduced competition, higher prices, and fewer vision care choices for Washington citizens.”

Nouveau Vision’s owner, Tim Sutich, said VSP’s delisting of his lab, “came as a shock. We’ve set out deliberately to be a capable, small lab that is very responsive to our customers,” said Sutich. “We’ve never been given any criteria from VSP as far as the size of our lab. By filing the complaint, we’re saying enough is enough,” he added.

Responding to the complaint, VSP spokesperson Pat McNeil said, “VSP respectfully disagrees with the allegations Nouveau Vision has raised with the state of Washington Commissioner of Insurance and we will fully cooperate with their review of this matter.”

An Essilor spokesperson commented, “The issues referenced in the letter arose from a disagreement between VSP and one of its network providers. Essilor was not part of VSP's decision process regarding its provider network and cannot speak to that issue.

“As concerns available lens choices, doctors in the state of Washington and nationally have a wide variety of competitive lenses from which to choose through many different laboratories, whether they are filling a VSP order or a private pay order. For example, VSP labs, other manufacturer owned labs, Essilor Labs, Essilor Partner Labs and Independent Labs, whether or not they sell Varilux, typically offer a wide variety of competitive lenses. The suggestion that only Essilor lenses are available to Washington VSP patients is obviously incorrect.”

About 10 Essilor labs are also being delisted by VSP, according to Essilor.

Nouveau’s complaint is currently under review by Washington state officials, who have yet to issue a response. An FTC official said the agency could not comment on an on-going investigation or complaint.