Did you change your insurance plan this year? Get some shiny new benefits or make adjustments to your old ones? It’s a good idea to go through all of the information your providers sent to make absolutely certain you know what’s covered and what’s coming out of pocket. No one likes surprises at the doctor’s office, and we certainly don’t like giving them!
While insurance changes constantly, it’s in a particularly large state of flux in the last couple of years. When we ask patients what their vision insurance is, they often tell us the name of their health insurance provider. Most of the time, that is separate from their vision benefits as many health care providers outsource the vision benefits to VSP, Eyemed, or another provider. We do not accept all vision insurance providers, but some medical insurance does have a vision benefit built in (e.g. BCBSIL sometimes builds annual exams into a benefit package without outsourcing) that we do accept.
If you and/or your HR director are unsure of your vision benefits, or if you are self-insured through the Marketplace, call the number on the back of your card to see what they are, and how you can access them online in the future to see what you have available to you.
Also note that many vision insurance providers don’t provide physical cards, and their information is online.
For medical visits, we accept: BCBS PPO, UHC PPO, Aetna PPO, Humana PPO, Cigna PPO, as well as Medicare Part B & supplemental PPO plans. If you have a Medicare Advantage plan through one of these companies (and it’s a PPO), we accept that, too.
If you are unsure what constitutes a medical visit, please be sure to ask before your appointment! If the doctor chooses to run a test during your appointment, they will let you know whether it is billable to your medical insurance. Services rendered are a financial responsibility of the patient, insurance is not a guarantee of payment. Payment of benefits are subject to all terms, conditions, limitations, and exclusions of the member’s contract at time of service.
