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Archive for the ‘Vision Insurance’ Category

Vision insurance is a form of coverage that is often not included in many insurance plans offered by employers, although it is becoming more common today. Some plans, if they do have vision coverage, may just be for the eye exam. With the costs of glasses, contact lens and the various forms of laser surgery today, many people desire and require vision insurance. Some employers will offer vision insurance at an additional cost. These are the cafeteria style benefit programs where the employee selects the coverage level desired and pays the additional premiums.

There are various vision plans available independent of employer-provided insurance.
Purchased vision insurance programs differ in the kinds of coverage included and also in the amount of covered expenses. Most plans provide the minimum coverage, eye exam, glasses and contacts and glaucoma testing with the amount paid depending on the terms of the policy. The cost to consumer is approximately $50 per year. The cost is lower if it is an add-on to an employer provided policy or HMO. However, the HMO will restrict the selection of the provider to one within their network.

Some vision insurance plans, like other forms of insurance, will let you select the level of coverage that you desire. The better the coverage is, the higher the cost is. Some even provide partial coverage for laser correction surgery, although this is not included in many plans. Avesis is one such provider of vision plans. Their plan covers glasses and contact lens and a small portion of the costs of LASIK procedures. Their plan does not cover treatment of eye diseases. The insured has to stay within their provider network to obtain the maximum benefits. If they go outside the network, they have to pay the bill in full and submit a claim for reimbursement of the portion of the benefits covered. VSP is another provider of individual vision care plans. Their plans are similar to the one described for Avesis, with some variations. Since VSP is in the process of developing programs in various states, the individual has to check their website to see if coverage is available in their state yet. Eyemed, and Spectera are other vision care providers. All of them make a distinction between network providers and out-of-network providers.

Many employers, realizing the cost of eye care especially with the advances made, like LASIK surgery, make some form of coverage available and many times at an additional cost to the employee. Those without employer provided coverage can look on the internet for available vision insurance plans. Avesis, VSP, Eyemed and Spectera are the vision care providers. The costs and the level of coverage depend on the plan the individual selects but most plans just cover lenses and exams.

What is Individual Vision Insurance?

It is a type of insurance that covers areas specific to your eyes. Eye care can be notoriously expensive, and this type of health insurance gives you several benefits that help bring down the costs.

Typically, it covers regular eye exams and related treatments, along with a specific amount in dollars to pay for eye glasses and contacts. A few policies might also cover advanced surgical treatments such as LASIK.

Anybody who has got glasses made or bought contacts, or even had a routine eye exam done knows how ridiculously expensive eye care can be. Lenses alone costs hundreds of dollars, while their frames are even more expensive. Add to that the delicate nature of these glasses (I tend to break mine every once or two months), and you are looking at thousands of dollars spend on eye care every year.

Considering the amount of strain our eyes get these days courtesy of computers and TV screens (most people spend almost 10 hours a day before a screen – a computer, or a TV), incidences of eye sight loss or weakening have been increasing every day. Along with this, the cost of eye care has been rising constantly too, owning to greater demand and limited supply. Individual vision insurance makes things easier by helping you pay for all these treatment options along with glasses, frames, and contacts.

Individual vision insurance acts as a supplement to your regular health insurance policy. A regular policy can aid you financially in case of any damage or injury to the eye, but cannot provide financial aid for eye exams, etc. These are areas covered by individual vision insurance policy. It is a wellness benefit designed specifically to take care of the eyes.

If you have poor eye sight and spend an enormous amount on eye exams, glasses, frames, and contacts, this is one policy you should definitely consider getting. It can save you thousands of dollars every year, and give you some peace of mind.

Almost as in the case of a car, eyes need to be periodically checked in order to ensure that our vision continues to work correctly. And, as with a car, visual care can also cost a considerable sum of money. Vision insurance assists people who have refractive errors (including those who suffer short-sight, hypertropia or astigmatism) and can help them reduce their expenses and allow them to plan eye care for the future.

Many people hesitate to buy visual insurance because they do not understand how they really work. Say, what should be covered and what doctors can you visit.

What is visual insurance? Just like dental insurance, vision insurance is a complement to the normal health insurance that covers routine care.

Insurance plans for vision reduces the cost of eye exams and routine treatments and help pay for small portions of important procedures of eye care.

Most plans require the payment of a regular monthly premium and in return offers eye care services at a reduced price (with discount vision plans), or coverage for a specific quantity of services per year with only a small co-payment per visit (for the benefit packages view).

Most people decide to get visual insurance when they employers cover a fraction of it. Depending on your plan and the company you or employer chooses, you will be able to choose a doctor who is affiliated to a specific network.

What should you know in order to choose the best visual plan for you?

Do not be surprised if part of this decision resides on your employer. This is often the circumstance. In this case, you will only need to pay attention to what services are included in the policy and are given the choice to pay extra for a play that suits your specific needs.

Glaucoma, macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy are some of the disorders most commonly covered by conventional visual insurance policies. If you happen to have any of these conditions, visual insurance will mean great savings for you. Other common benefits of visual insurance policies include: the discount or purchase of up to a limited number of glasses and lenses a year, and coverage for a fraction or total of tests.

For people with vision problems, vision insurance can be a real life saver. When you consider that one has to spend anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars every year on prescription glasses, contact lenses, and regular eye visits, it makes a lot of sense to get insured and drastically cut down these costs.

Individual vision insurance can be easily obtained through your employer. Most companies offer individual as well as group packages to insure not just yourself but also your family. This is a great plan for families that have more than one person with vision problems.

There have been cases when insurance providers haven’t lived up to their promises and charged people hundreds of dollars through some clause in the fine print of the contract. Therefore, it is recommended that you carefully go through your policy and comb out any suspicious clause that may have you pay hundreds of dollars extra for treatment.

Points like the one mentioned above make many people think whether individual vision insurance is even a justified expense. After all, a policy costs around $15-20 each month. If you have just mild vision problems, can take care of your contact lenses/prescription glasses (i.e. you can manage not to break/lose them), then your total expenses for treatment every year might be just around the expenses on an insurance policy. For such people, it may make financial sense to not purchase such a policy.

But for others who have severe vision problems or keep on losing/breaking their prescription glasses and contact lenses, individual insurance can cut down the costs drastically. You can literally save hundreds of dollars, especially on prescription glasses and contact lenses, which usually cost hundreds of dollars.

In the end, you have to sit down and analyze your total expenses every year on vision related problems. If it is more than $150, then by all means, go for a vision insurance policy.

If you were to ask people what disability they fear the most, chances are that ‘losing vision’ will top the list. Not to be macabre or morbid, but your vision is easily the most important of all your senses. As human beings, we rely on it excessively to know about our surroundings. While a dog can’t even see colors, it can know everything it needs to know through its superior sense of smell. For humans, their eyesight has to suffice. After all, we aren’t blessed with exceptional hearing or sense of smell.

Unfortunately, going by the number of people wearing glasses or lenses, it appears that most of us aren’t doing a good enough job of protecting our eyes. Blame it on our modern lifestyle that involves spending hours before computer and TV screens, but more and more people are falling victim to poor eye-sight.

As anyone who has bought a pair of glasses or had his eyes checked will tell you, taking care of your eyes can be an expensive affair! A simple pair of glasses can set you back by a good hundred dollars or more, especially if you like to buy frames that don’t look like they belonged to your grandmother. The same with contact lenses, which can be ridiculously expensive.

Regular eye exams aren’t cheap either – each can set you back by a few hundred dollars. Even the best permanent solution for vision problems – LASIK surgery – can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

So how does one really pay for all these expenses? Simple – through individual vision insurance!

Individual vision insurance is basically a special add-on to your current insurance policy that is designed specifically to care for the eyes. An individual vision insurance plan usually covers everything from regular eye exams to paying the optician’s fees, including glasses, frames and lenses.

For people with poor eyesight, it is a no-brainer: vision insurance can shave off hundreds of dollars from your annual eye care bills. For people with good eyesight but who spend hours before a computer or have a history of poor eye sight in the family, it makes sense to be prepared and purchase vision insurance in advance.

If you get your insurance through your employer, you can easily get it added to your existing plan for just a few dollars per month (usually around $15-20 per month). You can also get a group plan if there are multiple people in your family with vision problems. This is a ridiculously low price to pay for the tons of benefits.

In case you want to get surgery done, most vision insurance plans also provide coverage for a significant cost of the procedure (anything from 40-80% of the total costs).

Your eyes are precious – protecting them is something you don’t want to take a chance with. While it can be very expensive to take care of your eyes, with individual vision insurance, you can save hundreds of dollars every year.

Vision insurance is supplementary to a regular health insurance plan. Most health insurances already provide coverage for unexpected eye injuries and diseases. Additional vision insurance, however, is also available. As opposed to accidental coverage, additional vision insurance is a wellness benefit that provides coverage for routine preventive eye care, eye exams, and other services that eye doctors in urbane scrubs can provide at reduced costs. This type of insurance is ideal for families or companies and is usually obtained as a group. If your family is more genetically predisposed to having poor eyesight, then preventive care is advisable. For companies who need to invest on their employees having keen eyesight such as pilots, designers, writers, programmers, illustrators, and so on, group vision insurance are invaluable.

Where to get vision insurance

Group vision insurance can be obtained through your association, company, school district, or a government program such as Medicaid or Medicare. As an individual, you can purchase your own vision benefit plan from your health insurance company. Vision insurance is typically a value-added benefit linked to health insurance, preferred provider organizations (PPOs), and health maintenance organizations (HMOs). These organizations have contracts and are affiliated with managed vision care networks (i.e. hospitals and eye doctors) that provide the eye care services to insured clients.

Benefits of vision insurance

When you obtain value-added vision insurance, you will have access to a network of eye care providers including ophthalmologists and optometrists, optical laboratories, eyewear stores, and LASIK/PRK surgeons. You will also have access to routine eye check-ups and preventive eye care services at reduced rates. In general, vision insurance covers basic eye services including annual eye examinations, dilations, eyeglass frames, eyeglass lenses, contact lenses, and LASIK and PRK vision correction at discounted rates. The services that are acquired from network providers are obviously cheaper than services received from providers that are not part of the network. One of the best things about getting care within the network is that most health insurance companies implement standards and a quality assurance mechanism in choosing service providers. This way, you are assured that your eye doctor or eye surgery center is reputable and can be trusted.

Available vision insurance plans

Typically, when obtaining a vision insurance plan, you can choose from either a benefits package or a discount plan. In a benefits package, you usually pay an annual premium or a membership fee in exchange for eye care services. There will be yearly deductibles and co-pay each time you access a service. A discount plan, on the other hand, gives you access to eye care services at fixed discount rates after you pay a membership fee or annual premium and a deductible. Both types of plans can be customized according to your requirements whether as an individual or as a group.
Cost of vision insurance

Costs of vision insurance depend on the design of the program and the services available. Monthly membership fees range from less than a dollar to twelve dollars, deductibles from less than a dollar to thirty-five dollars, and co-pay of ten dollars to fifteen dollars for each network service.