Individual vision insurance is a specific insurance policy designed to take care of the eyes. Provides financial help to pay for routine eye exams, glasses, and contact lenses. It’s a great policy for people who have poor eyesight and spend hundreds of dollars each month on eye care.
You can get a group or individual insurance policy. Group policies can be obtained through your company or any other organization you work for. You can also get it through a government program like Medicaid. Check your company policy to learn more about it.
If you want to buy an individual policy (perhaps because you’re self-employed or because your company doesn’t offer individual vision insurance plans), you’ll be glad to know that most insurance providers sell separate policies for individuals.
Vision insurance is often a value-added benefit to supplement a regular policy. It is available with HMO (Health Maintenance Organization) and PPO (Preferred Provider Organization) plans, and is contracted through a managed vision care network that provides vision care services.
As you may already know, in an HMO plan, you are required to receive care from a select group of doctors, hospitals, and health care providers. It is much cheaper than PPO, but also much less flexible. A supplemental vision insurance policy under the HMO scheme limits your treatment choice to a select group of care providers only.
The PPO scheme is much more flexible with fewer restrictions. Under this scheme, healthcare providers (doctors, hospitals, etc.) are hired by the insurance company and receive a fixed fee for their work. The co-pay in PPO schemes is much higher (around 20% of the cost), but this is offset by the added freedom.
Obviously, it is much more beneficial to get vision insurance under the PPO scheme, but the cost of such a policy can be quite restrictive. Typically, your policy will cover the full spectrum of vision care, such as routine eye exams by an ophthalmologist, eye exams by an optometrist, eye surgeon, glasses, frames and lenses, etc. The only difference is that with a PPO scheme, you are free to choose your providers, while with the HMO scheme, you will have to hire the doctor or eyeglass store affiliated with the scheme.
Vision insurance cannot replace a regular policy. There is no financial reimbursement in case of injury or damage to the eye. It only helps you pay for vision care and glasses, and nothing else.
Typically, a policy allows for free treatment and checkups in exchange for a monthly or annual fee added to your current insurance plan. In some plans, you may be required to pay a ‘deductible’ – a fixed dollar amount that must be paid to the eye care provider.
Of course, an individual vision insurance policy can be custom designed to meet your needs.