Is it possible to check into a company's insurance plan to see if a particular medical treatment is covered before accepting a job?

There is much confusion over insurance when dealing with an eye examination. Before managed care played such a large role in the healthcare industry, you would go to your doct…or and simply pay a fee for the service provided. Any additional treatment would generally be paid out of pocket.

With insurance, you will pay a fee to your insurance provider regardless if you need medical care or not. The insurance company allows you to see certain doctors who are credentialed on their medical panels. In the realm of eyecare, there are two types of insurance: vision and medical.

This article will look into the difference between the two types of insurances and how it may affect your expenses. For the majority of instances, vision insurance helps cover a general eye examination, spectacles, and contact lens. In these cases, the diagnosis for the examination is primarily refractive in nature.

This means that you will come in complaining about a vision problem, and the reason for your complaint will be addressed with glasses or contact lenses. The general eye examination is a service which insurance will help to cover. The glasses and contact lenses are materials and are a separate fee.

Vision insurance can help to cover the frame for your glasses as well as the lenses put into the frames. Any cost that the vision plan does not cover will be billed to you. Most vision plans renew their coverage annually or biannually, though this varies widely depending on the type of plan you purchase.

Often times, a patient will go see their eyecare provider for a medical reason. These medical complaints include blurred vision, seeing flashes of light, eye pain, and eye redness amongst a slew of other problems. While in many cases blurred vision is caused by refractive error which can be addressed with new glasses or contact lenses, there are also a plethora of medical reasons besides refractive error for blurred vision.

If you are complaining about a medical problem above and beyond simply needing new glasses, then this issue will typically will be billed to your medical insurance. Patients with glaucoma, diabetes, red eyes, or complain about suddenly seeing black floaters are definitely medical problems that vision insurance will not cover. Medical insurance will cover spectacles in rare instances such as after having cataract surgery.

Did you know one of the main reasons a person goes to the emergency room for blurred vision is that they just need new glasses? Emergency room visits can be very costly, so it is suggested you go see your local eyecare provider first for any ocular issues. In addition, most emergency room doctors have very little training with the eye and will likely refer you to an eye specialist.

What if you need new glasses and have a medical complaint like dry eyes? In general, two separate visits will be required in order for insurance to cover both problems. Medical problems are usually addressed first because they are more urgent in nature.

Your dry eye visit will typically be billed to you or your medical insurance. On a separate day, a vision examination for new glasses will be given and that will be billed to your vision insurance. These are complicated waters but in general, if it is just glasses or contact lenses it will go to your vision insurance.

All other issues with the eyes will go to your medical insurance.