Before Your Visit

Please note: while we accept most insurance plans, some of our doctors participate only in certain plans. If the doctor you choose to see does not participate in your plan, you are welcome to see another doctor or receive care as a self-pay patient regardless of your insurance coverage. We encourage you to call our billing manager to learn about other means of financing your eye and vision care or call our benefits specialist to gain a clearer understanding of what benefits your insurer allows.

We do accept Medicare and most Medicaid plans for Maryland and DC.

Depending on your insurance, a referral may be required. Please contact your insurance company for more information.

Please see our Medical Insurance vs. Vision Insurance.

Although you may be paying a hefty monthly premium for your health insurance (or a percent of what your employer pays), your health plan most likely does not cover 100% of the cost of your healthcare. It most likely covers approximately 80% of the cost of your healthcare. Additional costs (or out-of-pocket expenses) that you may be responsible for may include an annual deductible, co-payments, and co-insurance.

A deductible fee is an amount you have agreed upon with your insurance company that you must pay out of pocket before your insurance pays for the remainder of your authorized services. If you have not met your deductible, we will submit the claim and discuss with you the amount of your deductible that is your responsibility to pay. The amount is paid directly to Visionary Eye Doctors and your insurance company will be notified of this amount when the our bill has been submitted, so they can update any deductible remaining or update that your deductible has been met.

Your share of the costs of a covered health care service is calculated as a percent (for example, 20%) of the allowed amount for the service. You pay co-insurance plus any deductibles you owe. For example, if the health insurance or plan’s allowed amount for an office visit is $100 and you’ve met your deductible, your co-insurance payment of 20% would be $20. The health insurance or plan pays the rest of the allowed amount. Please note if there is any co-insurance fee, we will discuss this with you prior to services being provided to you.

A co-payment (or co-pay) is a fixed-dollar amount that you pay each time for certain services. Most commonly, you will be responsible for a co-pay each time you have a doctor’s visit and for each prescription medication you fill. For example, typical co-payments may be $20 for each primary care physician visit, $35 co-payment for a specialist visit. Co-pays are most often used in HMOs and for services you receive from a network provider in a PPO.

Visionary Eye Doctors offers Care Credit which has many payment options, including plans with no finance charges that are available. Please call 301.896.0890 to be connected to our billing department during our normal business hours 8:00 am to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, or you may send us an email. If it’s after hours, we will respond back to you the next business day.

Comprehensive eye exams include tests that determine general eye health and refractive status (i.e. eyeglass needs). Contact lenses are medical devices that may have certain health implications if not prescribed correctly. Your Doctor must invest additional time and expertise to determine which contact lenses are in a patient’s best vision and health interest and, as you might imagine, there are additional fees for this service. Note: Sometimes this requires additional follow-up visits as well.

Insurance companies view most contact lenses as elective vision correction and generally offer a discount towards the contact fitting fee. In rare occasions, insurance companies may consider contacts as medically necessary and cover a portion or all of a contact fitting, such as those for patients with conditions like keratoconus. Most insurance companies take the position that if your vision can be corrected with glasses, then contacts are not medically necessary and therefore are not covered as extensively as glasses and your annual eye exam.

Contact lenses come in “contact” with the delicate surface of your eye and, over time, can change the status of the health of your eye. Contact lenses are also considered “Medical Devices” as they are directly placed on your eye; this means an evaluation needs to be done every year even if the prescription does not change. Most health conditions that contact lenses can be responsible for causing don’t result in obvious symptoms like pain or vision change – only your doctor can determine if contact lens wear continues to be safe with your most recent prescription. Most experienced doctors agree that one year is a suitable amount of time between checkups to ensure your eye health, given you are relatively symptom-free.

Standard contact lens therapy involves correcting vision for one standard challenge such as nearsightedness or farsightedness.

Contact lens therapy that requires treating astigmatism, bifocal vision or other special conditions requires deeper knowledge and more time invested on your behalf. This level of therapy is deemed “premium” and, subsequently, results in a different fee level.

Each brand of contact lens has its own related price, but generally our prices are matched to what you might find anywhere. We also offer value-added services for patients who purchase their year’s supply from our office, such as discounts or glasses specials. We also provide services like easy box return and/or exchange, and free trial lenses when you’re running low (for patients who purchase their year’s supply from us).