Vision Insurance Options
Vision insurance today has more options than ever before. There are basics you should know to make good usage of your vision insurance.
Vision Insurance Plan Coverage
Understanding your vision plans can be somewhat daunting. If your vision insurance is through your employer, your HR department or the insurance company’s website is a good place to start. Knowing what your vision insurance plan does and does not cover is important. In general, there are two types of vision insurance plans:
Vision Benefit Packages
Vision Discount Plans
Vision Benefits Package
Visual benefit packages are generally purchased as a supplement to traditional healthcare. This type of vision insurance includes a fixed set of benefits related to eye health and maintenance, including routine eye exams and testing, some cost coverage for corrective eyewear, and sometimes benefits that reduce eye surgery expenses. This type of insurance typically includes a network of participating eyecare professionals who have partnered with the insurance agency for benefits.
Some vision insurance plans have included more personalized choices for the consumer in the form of defined contribution vision coverage. You choose the particular services and discount offerings based on what you expect in your personal vision expenses.
Some of these vision plans use pre-tax dollars to deduct automatically by your employer for Flexible Spending Accounts, Health Savings Accounts or Health Reimbursement Accounts.
Vision Discount Plans
Vision discount plans are generally less flexible than a vision benefits package because it offers flat discounts across the board for vision-related services. Some of the discounts might include eye exams, eyeglasses, contact lenses, and surgical procedures.
You agree to pay the difference at full cost; however, these plans generally offer lower premiums. This typically includes a “network” of participating eyecare professionals who have agreed to honor discount pricing within the vision plan.
Vision Insurance Planning
Vision insurance planning can help you maximize your benefits but first, you must fully understand what is specifically covered under your vision insurance plan. By also discussing options with your eye care professional to see how best to apply your particular vision coverage to your eye care expenses.
Treatment of unexpected eye injury or certain eye diseases is often covered by your traditional health insurance rather than your specific vision insurance plan.
It’s your vision insurance, so understanding your particular vision coverage is important to maximizing your benefits.
Use it or lose it.
Vision benefit plans can expire annually. This means if you don’t “use it” you “lose it” until the next year. Since you are contributing your hard-earned money toward your vision coverage, there’s really no excuse to skip your annual eye exam, especially if you should experience any changes in your vision.
What’s more, many of the defined contribution vision insurance plans (Flexible Spending Accounts in particular) don’t allow for your deposited money to roll over into the next year. If you don’t spend what you’ve allocated, you may be at risk of losing that money entirely.
Special thanks to the National Eye Institute, and National Institutes of Health, for source material that aided in the creation of this website.
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