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"Clearly VSP's mission is something other than maximizing profits, " says VSP general counsel Thomas Fessler.
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She joined the venture fund Mayfield in 1998, and later became a partner at VSP Capital.
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The not-for-profit company I lead, VSP Vision Care, is the largest stand-alone vision care insurance firm in the country.
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Fessler offers other examples of VSP's good deeds: VSP offers its eye-care services to its subscribers through 25, 000 private doctors, one-third of whom practice in medically underserved communities.
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The National Taxpayers Union has weighed in too on behalf of VSP, saying that nonprofit HMOs, which previously had every reason to believe they were tax exempt now have a large cause for concern.
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VSP, which represents 28, 000 eye doctors around the U.S., has been lobbying states to make sure that in 2014, people who want to purchase stand-alone vision care from their state exchange have the opportunity.
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Backing VSP's request for a Supreme Court hearing are three national charities, all partners in Sight for Students--Prevent Blindness America, the National Association of School Nurses and the National Council of La Raza (a Hispanic anti-poverty group).
FORBES: Supreme Court Question: What's A Charity?
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Moreover, the VSP case doesn't stand alone.
FORBES: Supreme Court Question: What's A Charity?
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The Ninth Circuit decision denying VSP tax-exempt status threatens to "divert to the federal treasury funds from the Sight for Students program, " depriving the poor kids and jeopardizing their eye care, the charities argue in a friend-of-the-court brief.
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