insurance | financial policy

At Tradewinds Eye Care, our goal is to provide with the best eye health care in a fun and pleasant environment. Many of our patients have both a vision discount plan and medical insurance and we want to help you understand the difference between the two. Please take a few moments to review the differences regarding vision plans and medical insurance:

Vision benefits are differentiated into two categories: medical insurance through your major medical carrier and vision discount plans.  Vision discount plans provide discounts towards annual routine eye exams, frames, lenses, and contact lenses.  Some of these plans may cover in part or in full, the cost of a contact lens evaluation, which is necessary every year if you choose to wear contact lenses. Vision discount plans are not designed to cover any medical conditions affecting the sight of the eye. This can be anything from dry eyes to sight-threatening eye diseases (diabetes, glaucoma, cataracts, etc).

Medical insurance protects one against financial losses due to unexpected eye injuries and/or disease(s). In the event the doctor uncovers a medical issue at the root of the vision problem, please be aware vision benefits do not cover continuing care. Depending on the medical insurance, the medical claim may have a increased co-pay, co-insurance, and/or deductible. Please be aware of your vision and medical benefits with your insurance company.

Medical insurance may provide coverage towards a routine eye exam as well. In some cases, a vision discount plan may be offered through a 3rd party carrier (EyeMed, Superior, Community, VSP, ect). For example, many Blue Cross/Blue Shield policies offer an annual eye exam as part of the major medical plan, while other policies contract this coverage with a 3rd party vision vendor.  We make every effort to verify your benefits before your exam.  Please understand that we cannot obtain benefit information from plans we are not made aware of prior to your visit.  Tradewinds Optometric Group will access a $35 fee to refile a claim with a vision discount plan after the date of service, if we are not informed of such plan beforehand.

What is Insurance?
A insurance company provides health benefits, as a product, to its customers purchased through the Health Care Marketplace (ACA) or their employer.  As a customer of the insurance company, the relationship is between you and the insurance company.  As a business, we do not have a relationship with the insurance company. Tradewinds will file insurance claims with the insurance company as a courtesy to our patients.  However, this is not a guarantee of payment of benefits by the insurance company and at no time does Tradewinds guarantee what the insurance company will or will not do with each claim. Of course, Tradewinds will do its best to determine benefits before your appointment time with the information that was provided at the time of service.

Office Financial Policy:

Payment for services are expected at the time services are rendered. This includes all co-pays, co-insurance, deductibles and remaining balance after your insurance is billed. Payment options: Cash, Debit or Credit Card (MC, Visa, Discover, AMEX).  Checks are not currently accepted.Any balance resulting from insurance denials and/or underpayments becomes patient, parent or guardian’s responsibility.

You are responsible for your charges and agree to pay for any attorney/ collection fees up to 25% of the original bill should said bill not be paid in a timely manner. Any unpaid accounts and/or additional fees incurred by Tradewinds will be referred to a collection agency. Eye exams and contact lens fittings are services and non-refundable.

If you have any questions about Tradewinds Financial Policy, please contact our office.  We are happy to help!

Our Insurance Companies we work with:

VSP Open Access, EyeMed, Community Eye Care, Superior Eye Care, BCBS, Aetna, United Healthcare, Medicare.