Professional Fees (2022)
Comprehensive Eye Exam $109.00
Comprehensive Eye Exam + Contact Lens Fitting $180.00
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and Answers
1. What is the Contact Lens Fitting Fee ($71)
Why is there a yearly contact lens fitting fee?
This fee covers the extra tests performed by the doctor and includes any necessary follow-up visits and trials lenses. Contact Lens Rx are valid for 1 year. There are no hidden fees for toric or multifocal fittings or follow-up visits. If you are not satisfied with your contact lenses, we will examine you again at no additional cost up to 3 months after the initial fitting.
Why doesn’t my insurance cover that fee?
Insurance companies view contact lenses as elective vision correction and generally offer a 10-15% discount towards the contact fitting fee. If your vision can be corrected with glasses, then contacts are not considered medically necessary and therefore not covered.
The glasses Rx cannot be directly converted into a contact lens Rx because the contact lens Rx needs to take in to account a number of additional factors such as spherical lenses, toric lenses for astigmatism, monovision, and multifocal lenses. The patient’s ocular health including eyelids, conjunctiva, cornea, and tear film also influence the type of contact lens we recommend for each patient.
2. What is covered with CalOptima (Medi-Cal)?
--An Eye Exam is authorized every 2 years (no exceptions). Contacts Lens Fitting is NOT covered under any conditions (the yearly contact lens fitting fee is
).Please take out your contact lenses before coming to the eye exam if you do not want to be charged the fitting fee.
--Office visits or checkups before the 2 year period that need immediate attention will need a prior authorization from the primary care physician. Please call your primary care physician BEFORE scheduling an appointment with us.
--Glasses are covered every 2 years for patients ages 0-20 years old. Patients age 21 and older are eligible for EXAM ONLY.
3. Why are our prices higher than online prices?
We offer discounts for private pay patients and many times our prices are lower, but occasionally higher, than online prices. Vision insurances reimburse us only a small portion of your "frame allowance". For instance if you have a frame allowance of $120, we might get $40 as a reimbursem*nt. If wepriceframes similarly to that of online retailers, vision insurances (ie VSP, Eyemed, Davis Vision, Spectera) reimburse only a small percentage of the allowance, and we lose money. We have to take into account taxes, shipping costs, and insurance reimbursem*nt when pricing our frames.
4. Are our prices competitive?
Yes! We will match any frame or contact lenses price found at another private practice optometry office. We try to price our contact lenses lower than Costco (after yearly rebate savings). We review our prices and rebates annually in comparison to other big-box retailers and price our materials at the same or lower cost in most instances. While the costs of our materials to us has consistently been increased by manufacturers, we have resisted the necessary move to raise our service and material prices for patients for the past 10 years! If you shop around at other private practice offices we would expect you pay sometimes twice the amount you are charged here. We have been told several times by company representatives that are prices are one of the lowest they have seen compared to other private practice offices.
5. How are your glasses different from Costco?
Costco only sells one brand of lenses, the "Kirkland" brand, which might work for you, but no optometrist knows what that really is! We are proud to say that we pick the best quality of lenses in the eyecare industry! We are able to order almost any lenses available that exists in the industry with rare exceptions. We like to use an analogy of glasses and cellphones; we try to offer you the latest iPhone, whereas other places might sell you a generic cellphone. We test our lenses out and pick what we believe is the best (ie Essilor coatings, Unity progressive, and Transitions photochromics). Our
coatings offer a 2-year scratch warranty (one time per year). We stand by our products and offer a 90-day guarantee that you will like your glasses. We believe in the quality of products that we offer you a 100% refund if you are not satisfied. We want you to love your glasses!
6. I only want what my insurance covers. Is that okay?
Generally, insurance only covers the bare minimum: CR-39 lens material and Single Vision or Bifocal only. CR-39 lens material is thick, scratches easily, offers no UV protection, and can shatter. Insurance gives you a benefit towards a frame (ie $100 allowance) with discounts. Our average frame cost without insurance is around $250. You won't love your glasses if you get only what insurance covers! Expect to pay around $200-700 out-of-pocket total (after insurance discounts) for 1.60 mid-index lens material, premium anti-glare coating, and frame with a 1-year warranty. If cost is the most important thing to you, we understand there are cheaper glasses available online, as low as $20. I wear glasses and contact lenses every second of the day that I am awake, and value clear and comfortable vision. My eyesight is something I value immensely and believe that it is worth it to invest in eyecare that is better than the bare minimum.
7. Why do glasses cost so much?
We don't believe glasses cost a lot because I value the quality of certain brands of lenses and frames. I just bought new glasses for my mother-in-law and my wholesale lab bill was for the lenses alone was $550 (not including the frame). There is a common misconception that the markup on glasses is high. Our office has priced lenses so low that we have lost money because our lab bill has kept increasing. The technology on lenses and coating is constantly advancing like any other technology. To give you an example, the anti-glare coating has 11 layers, is matched to the substrate (lens material), and is less than 1/10 the thickness of human hair. If we return to the cellphone analogy, it depends on what type, brand, and technologic features the phone has, that makes it worth the price.
8. Do you recommend the Blue-blocker coating?
Yes, well sort of. There was a thought that screen lights are harmful and can damage our retina due to the high energy blue light. A blue-blocker coating reduces the intensity of blue light by 20% reaching the eye. However, optometrists believe blue light is natural and is necessary for normal vision. One fact is that the sun emits 20,000X the amount blue light that comes from screens. So being outside for 1 minute is equivalent to staring at a screen all day. While, we do believe staring at screens, especially hand-held devices, are bad for our eyes and health, we believe there is likely no health benefit to wearing blue-blocker lenses. We recommend it because we believe patients might have less eyestrain with them. The blue blocking lenses have a slight yellow tint to the lenses. Most people cannot see that yellow tint as when you wear them, but if you put your glasses on white paper background you will see it. Our last advice regarding blue-light that is the well documented fact that looking at your phone 30 minutes before bed is stimulating and reduces the quality of sleep. We all need to reduce screen time as much as possible.
9. What is an anti-glare coating?
The benefits are clearer vision, scratch resistance, easier to clean, cosmetically superior. We believe all glasses should have an anti-reflective coating as a standard. Anti-reflective coatings improve vision by reducing reflection making vision clearer while driving at night or on the computer. The coating repels water and dirt making it easier to clean. We can show you an in-office example of putting a water droplet on the lenses and you will see it glide off the surface compared to a non-coated lenses. If you ever look at your iphone camera or DSLR lenses you will see a blue or green reflection off the lenses which is the anti-glare coating. All cameras and lenses have the coatings for best optical performance.
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