Many people wonder if the cost of their prescription glasses is covered by their insurance plan. The answer is that it varies tremendously from plan to plan. Before you pay out of your own pocket for prescription glasses, take a look at your plan to determine whether or not you have vision coverage.

What Most Insurance Plans Cover

Most medical insurance plans cover losses of vision and finances due to eye injury or disease. In other words, if your eye is damaged in a car accident and you require the services of an eye doctor, it will be covered. Most medical insurance plans do not cover typical “wellness” care for your eyes, such as prescription glasses and routine eye exams, unless the plan has a vision insurance policy attached to it.

Adding Vision Insurance

If you are part of a group insurance plan, you may have the option to add vision insurance to your policy. This is usually considered a value-added benefit that is attached to a traditional health insurance structure. Whether you have indemnity health insurance, an HMO, or a PPO, you may have the opportunity to add vision insurance. By adding this coverage, you will be able to access a network of eye care providers and specialists, as well as coverage and discounts on your routine eye care. This usually includes the cost of prescription glasses.

Paying for Vision Insurance

Adding a vision benefits package to your health insurance adds an annual premium amount. You may also have a deductible that you have to meet before the insurance will cover your eye care. Typically, the premium will be an amount up to $144 a year, and the maximum deductible is typically under $40. Each plan is different, so be sure to read the fine print, but you will pay more for this coverage if you pay for your own health insurance. Some companies provide this as part of their overall healthcare benefits, so read your policy to see if you are covered.

In general, those with vision insurance will receive:

- A yearly eye exam
- Eyeglass lenses and frames
- Contacts
- LASIK discounts

Some providers will put limits on their coverage, such as only allowing the insured to get new glasses or contacts every other year. They also may put a limit on the amount they will pay for frames, which means you will pay a little out of your pocket if you want designer frames.

Tips for Using Vision Insurance

Before you schedule an appointment, check with your benefits information packet to see what doctors are covered. Remember, you will need to use a doctor in your network if you want to be covered. If you need to see a doctor who is not in your network, you may still be able to have your prescription glasses covered by filling your prescription elsewhere, but you will have to pay out of pocket for your exam.

When it is time for your eye exam, make sure you talk to your optometrist about your insurance. Most policies require the doctor to seek pre-authorization before they treat you if you are going to be covered. If this is necessary, have the doctor make the necessary calls before your appointment.

When you arrive for your appointment, present your vision insurance card. You will be asked to pay any deductibles or co-pays associated with the coverage you have. After your exam, the doctor or his staff will help you choose frames. If you have limits on the amount you can spend for frames, make sure you are looking at covered options.

If you are lucky enough to have prescription glasses coverage, make sure you take advantage of it as often as you are allowed. This will ensure that you have updated glasses as often as you need them, helping you see the world around you clearly.

Just the thought of a surgeon messing with your eyes can send a chill through most of us. Cataract eye surgery is no exception. But with the development of microsurgical procedures, cataract eye surgery is quick, generally without discomfort, and will dramatically restore your vision to the point where you may require prescription glasses for distance vision or reading only.

Primarily distinguished by the clouding of the lens of the eye, a cataract doesn’t cause blindness but instead gradually reduces your vision. It does this as it grows from a small area of cloudiness that often goes unnoticed to a much larger area of cloudiness that covers the entire lens. Initially, you may not even be aware of a change in your vision. However, over time, cataracts tend to enlarge to the point where your vision does become affected.

The good news is that cataract eye surgery has become commonplace (there are over one million such surgeries performed each year), and results in success nearly 100% of the time.

Very basic and straightforward, cataract eye surgery involves removing the clouded lens and replacing it with a plastic lens.

There are two fundamental approaches to this eye surgery. The first is called Phacoemulsification and is generally the preferred approach to cataract removal. It involves the use of sound waves to break up the cataract. Here’s how it works: a small incision is made on the side of the cornea, (the clear, dome-shaped surface that covers the surface of the eye). The tip of a microsurgical instrument is inserted into the eye. This instrument emits high frequency waves which break up the lens into tiny fragments. The fragments are then removed by suction, using the same instrument.

The second fundamental approach is called Extracapsular surgery. In this approach, a longer incision is made on the side of the cornea and the core of the cloudy lens is removed in a single piece. Any remaining fragments of the lens are removed by suction. Extracapsular surgery requires stitches to close the larger incision and generally takes six to eight weeks to properly heal.

In both cases, after the cornea is removed and replaced with a tiny prescription lens referred to as an intraocular lens (IOL). Using a calculated corrective prescription, the IOL clearly focuses light onto the retina, which dramatically improves vision. The new lens feels completely natural, you won’t notice it at all, just as you didn’t previously notice your cornea.

There are two types of intraocular lenses used for cataract surgery: Monofocal and Multifocal.

Monofocal

With the monofocal lens implant, the lens acts the same as your natural lens, except it cannot adjust focus. The lens is shaped to provide good vision for either farsightedness or nearsightedness, but is unable to improve both distances. Depending on whichever range you choose (most oten the monofocal lens is used to improve farsightedness), the other vision distance will require glasses or regular contact lenses.

Multifocal

With the newer multifocal intraocular lens implant, you’ll experience normal vision at all distances, which may eliminate the need for prescription glasses. There are some cautions, however. Around 4% of those who receive multifocal lenses exerience some night time glare and halos {spheres of illuminated haze surrounding sources of light). These side effects tend to decrease over time and may be minimized with the use of eye drops or prescription glass for night driving.

As with any surgery, there can always be complications. Complete healing for cataract eye surgery may require several weeks, though you should be able to return to your normal routine fairly quickly. You’ll likely experience some dryness and itching in your eye during the healing process. Be sure to use your prescribed eye drops and closely follow your doctor’s instructions.

Though cataract eye surgery may sound a little unnerving, the procedure is generally quick and painless. More important, it brings with it a 98% success rate. Don’t let the process scare you. Talk with your ophthalmologist about your particular situation and the best way to improve your vision.

Of course it is essential that you get the right glasses for your eyes and don’t waste your time. If you have read my blog on refractive errors then i’m confident you’re not completely lost, however the next step is knowing what your optician has put down on your prescription in order for you to enter your glasses details into the sites so you can get the perfect glasses for your eyes.

If you don’t have a prescription, bookmark this site, make an appointment at your local optician and then come back as soon as your ready. You need to remember not to be pressured into buying glasses you don’t want when at the optician. Come back here and ill lead you to the glasses you really want, your eyes deserve it.

Vision wizard

right now you may be confused and intimidated by the crazy numbers on your glasses prescription. I have broken it down into simple glasses knowledge that you can easily use to purchase your glasses online in the near future.

Your glasses prescription

this allows a glasses lens to be made that corrects your eyesight whether it be myopia (short-sight), hyperopia (long-sight), astigmatism (uneven sight) or presbyopia (old-age sight). There is a number representing the power of your glasses lens and is measured in diopters.

There are three important numbers

For example (-5.00 0.01 180 ) the first number is your degree of sightedness (minus means near-sighted, plus means far-sighted), the second number is your degree of astigmatism (can be plus or minus but it is not important), the third number is the axis of your astigmatism (many people do not have astigmatism so some of the numbers may be unimportant)

For this example prescription the person has moderate near-sightedness and very slight astigmatism in the horizontal axis.

Luckily it’s easier than you think…

Almost all of the sites I have recommended on my site have easy entry glasses prescription options that make it efficient and simple to order the right glasses. However just in case there is something you don’t quite understand I have listed some important glasses prescription terms.

D.V. = abbreviation for distance vision

n.V. = abbreviation for near vision

o.D. = abbreviation for oculus dexter (right eye)

o.S. = abbreviation for oculus sinister (left eye)

o.U. = abbreviation for oculus uterque (both eyes)

spherical correction = refers to when a lens must be symmetrical in both axes

cylindrical correction = refers to a lens that corrects errors in only one axis

axis = vertical, horizontal or diagonal lines in relation to the eye

pd = pupillary distance; the distance between pupils of both eyes. It will be necessary for you to obtain your pupillary distance but this can be done with the help of a friend

Now you understand glasses…

Most of the glasses you buy online will require a prescription, so now you know what everything means you can easily go off right now and buy a pair. Follow the link below to go to my site where you will find all the sites and information you need to get your perfect glasses, quickly and easily.

‘First impression is the last impression’ – This adage suits very well in today’s times, when your appearance counts a lot. Even though you may not be competing with others based on looks, it would do you well to look good when you walk outside your house. Even in such a case, if you team one of your best wardrobes with the reading glasses, it would be just the same as wearing fantastic apparel with slippers. So for looking good, you should dress your eyes properly as well. Eyebobs provide very good-looking sunglasses for you to look good.

Just consider a piece of statistic related to reading glasses – about 8 people all over the world turn 40 with each passing second. So they would invariably need glasses at some point of time. By the time the reach 50, over 95% of them would require reading glasses. There is an alternative, no doubt, that they could go for very expensive surgeries or get themselves contact lenses, but for those who wish to stick to the traditional glasses, can make a good fashion statement with the reading glasses as well. You would need EyeBobs for getting your look together.

For reading glasses, you don’t require Irish eyes, Scojo reading glasses or even Calvin Klein, but just EyeBobs since they are the most happening ones and the most ahead in fashion in the market. Besides being good looking, EyeBobs has names like ‘Fresh Man’, ‘Skeptic’ and even ‘Loan Ranger’, among others, to their credit. So it sends out clear signals that Eyebobs glasses are made for people who wish to look bold.

While there are many reasons to consider Eyebobs, a few of them are mentioned below:

o The Eyebob frames can easily be turned into the prescription glasses. You just need to give your prescription to an optician to do that. Besides, you can make them bifocals as well, which too is an optician’s work. This is one unique feature of Eyebob glasses.

o All the Eyebob glasses have an ultraviolet protection, and are also scratch-proof besides being shatter resistant.

o Whenever you buy any Eyebob model, you get a hard case for their safe storage as well.

o It will take you a lot of effort in finding quarter diopter strengths, which come in increments from 1.00 to 3.00.

So is it clear that Eyebobs offer you everything that you would want from your glasses, and as said earlier on, they are trendy as well. They will make you feel very comfortable with a unique style. So go and buy a pair of Eyebob glasses.

It has been said before that all the Eyebob glasses can be easily converted into prescription glasses as well. Still, there are many opticians who would claim that it cannot be done. In such a case, just take the Eyebob glasses to another optician since the conversion is being done by a lot of opticians throughout the country. So buy a pair of Eyebob glasses now, and make a strong statement!

There are 24.6 million LASIK surgeries performed worldwide and an estimated number of over one million LASIK procedures performed annually in the USA alone. With the prevalence and increasing popularity of LASIK to improve and correct vision, and with a high satisfaction rate for those who underwent the procedure, you may find yourself asking – am I a good candidate for it?

Good candidates for the LASIK procedure are people who are over 18 years of age and have stable prescription glasses or contact lenses for two years. Surgeons want to find out if you have stable vision since people aged 18 and younger have visions that are still developing. Another criteria would be having vision problems such as near-sightedness (myopia), far-sightedness (hyperopia), astigmatism or any combination of these with low or moderated degrees of refractive error. People who want to be free from using contact lenses and glasses, and have realistic expectations of surgery results are also good candidates.

Patients with diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, Sjogren’s disease, HIV, AIDS, lupus, or other chronic diseases are not good candidates. The same is true for people taking certain medications such as steroids, retinoic acid since they may also impair wound healing and affect the outcome of the surgery.

This procedure is not for women who are pregnant or breast-feeding. Pregnant women have fluctuating hormones which causes increased retention of body fluids that may change the shape of your cornea and temporarily change your vision. After surgery, patients are often required to take antibiotics and other medications to promote healing and prevent infections. These medications when ingested by women who are either pregnant or breastfeeding may harm or pose risks to their babies.

Another criteria worth mentioning is to find out if you have sufficient corneal thickness and pupil size. The surgeon would need to cut out a flap of your cornea to sculpt it so having sufficient thickness is important since operating on thin corneas may cause blindness complications. Pupil size is also important in order to help the surgeon plan the corrective procedure better and also to take into consideration your night vision after LASIK surgery. Patients with dry eyes should not undergo this procedure since LASIK may worsen your condition.

Not everyone is eligible to undergo LASIK. Patients should consult their doctors first for potential risks and complications before undergoing any procedure. It also wise to learn more about the procedure itself, the outcomes, short term and long term complications, risks and benefits of this procedure. Lastly, get a list of reputable surgeons who have competency and adequate experience of performing this procedure.

If you go to an eye care professional for all of your optical needs, then reading your eyeglass prescription is something that you may never have to worry about. However, if you ever plan on trying to order a pair of eyeglasses online without visiting the optician’s office it’s imperative that you know how to properly read your prescription it you want to get a pair of glasses that you can see out of.

You prescription will often be delivered as a pair of numbers – one number under the Latin abbreviation of OS (your left eye) and the other under the Latin abbreviation OD (your right eye). The farther away either number is from zero in either direction (plus or minus) the worse your eyesight is and the more correcting your vision will need for you to be able to see clearly.

If the numbers in your prescription are in the positive it means that you are farsighted, or that you have problems with seeing things close to you; if the numbers are in the negative it means that you are nearsighted or that you have difficulty viewing objects that are far away.

If you suffer from astigmatism you’ll see three numbers in your eye glasses prescription – the first of which will represent both of the numbers seen in a prescription of a person who doesn’t have astigmatism, the second number will represent the severity if the astigmatism – the larger the number here the greater you are effected by the astigmatism. The third number in the prescription of a person who suffers from astigmatism will be between zero and one hundred and eighty and this number reveals the location of the astigmatism. For proper corrective treatment of astigmatism, the technician making your lenses needs to know the location of the astigmatism in degrees as well as the level of severity.

Each of the numbers that you see in your eyeglass prescription is crucial to the final result, the numbers may be whole numbers or they may be fractional (like 1.25, representing one and one quarter) and the exact number is required for you to be able to see clearly. The numbers represent “diopters” which is the unit of vision correction from which your lenses will be manufactured. If you are off by even a fraction of a point when relating the information of your diopters, your glasses may not be as precise as they need to be to properly correct your vision. When relating all of the numbers and symbols of your eyeglass prescription for an order it’s imperative that you be precise or you will receive a pair of glasses that won’t properly correct your problem.

There are other considerations when contemplating ordering prescription glasses online that don’t necessarily have to do with your prescription itself, but that could seriously affect the corrective properties of your glasses. The most common number not represented in your prescription that you’ll need to know when ordering glasses online is the distance between your pupils, or your PD. There’s a good chance that your PD will be imprinted somewhere on your old glasses, if you’ve still got them – if you don’t the number isn’t all that difficult to get. You’ll need a ruler that measures in millimeters and a mirror. All you do to get you PD is to look straight ahead into the mirror and hold your ruler directly below your eyes to measure the distance between the centers of your pupils. The most common distance for a PD is between 58 and 70 mm, so if your distance is either well under 58 or well over 70, you might want to measure again.

Reading your prescription and ordering glasses without visiting the optician is certainly possible, but if you have any questions about what you’re reading it’s highly advisable to visit your eye care professional to be certain that you get it right – eyeglasses are expensive and you certainly won’t be able to return a custom pair, so make sure you get everything right before you make anything final.