Routine eye exams are essential to preserve your vision and safeguard your eye health. Vision insurance and vision benefits plans can make routine eye care more affordable, especially if you are among the majority of Americans who wear prescription eyeglasses or contact lenses.
You can subscribe to a vision plan that offers eye care and eyewear benefits either through your employer or directly from an insurance or vision benefits company.
What kinds of vision insurance plans are available?
Vision insurance plans offer either a vision benefits package or discounts on eye care and eyewear.
A vision benefits package that covers services such as eye exams may require a co-payment from you at the time of service, with the balance to be paid by your plan. In a vision discount plan, you pay for services in full, but at a lower-than-normal price that participating eye care practitioners have agreed to charge members.
Steps to get an eye exam
- Step 1: How to choose an eye doctor
- Step 2: Eye exams: Cost and when to have them
- Step 3: What to expect during eye exams
- Step 4: Choosing eyeglasses
When you purchase vision insurance, whether it is a benefits package or a discount plan, you buy two products:
- Access to a network of eye care providers who have agreed to provide services and/or products at reduced prices (either to you or to the company administering the plan). These providers typically are optometrists and general ophthalmologists. In some cases, ophthalmologists who are refractive surgeons and provide LASIK and other vision correction procedures may be included.
- Specific eye care services and products, such as eye exams, eyeglasses and contact lenses.
Therefore, when choosing a vision insurance plan, you need to evaluate both the eye care provider network and the services being offered.
How to evaluate vision benefits and vision discount plans
To evaluate vision benefits packages and vision discount plans, first estimate your present and future eye care needs.
Begin by reviewing one or two years in your personal records to find out what kinds of eye care services you and your family members have used in the past and how many times these services were used by each family member.
This information can give you an idea of what your future needs might be.
Then take a look at a number of available plans and ask yourself:
- Which vision plan provides services and products that meet my needs best?
- Which vision plan will save me the most money?
- Does the plan have quality assurance mechanisms and easy-to-follow grievance procedures?
Basic services typically include an eye examination with dilation, an eyeglass frame, a pair of eyeglass lenses and, in some cases, contact lenses. Refractive surgery, such as LASIK and PRK, might also be included.
A list of value-added eyewear products covered under vision benefits might include:
- Progressive lenses
- High-index lenses
- Photochromic lenses
- Polycarbonate lenses
- Anti-reflective coating
- Scratch-resistant coating
- Polarized sunglasses
Ask your optician about the benefits of each of these products to get the most out of your vision insurance or benefits plan. Even if one of these items is not covered by your plan and you have to pay for it out-of-pocket, the other components of your glasses that are covered may result in a significant discount of the entire cost of your eyeglasses.
