Eye Coverage

One of the decisions individuals and families generally have to make concerning insurance is whether or not they want eye coverage. Some benefits packages will include prescription drug coverage along with eye coverage and dental coverage, but many benefit packages will leave out eye coverage and dental. If the latter is the case, then you and your family (if you have one) may want to pick up supplemental insurance in order to have eye coverage and dental if you should ever need it. At the very least, it would help paying medical bills if an eye or dental problem occurred.

If you do have eye coverage, then you may very well be able to get a discount on LASIK or PRK surgery. Sometimes, an offer like this also includes a comprehensive eye exam, pre and post-operative care, and a treatment warranty.

What are LASIK and PRK surgery and why should eye coverage help with them?

LASIK is laser surgery that helps correct your visions. The procedure involves a cool beam of light that gently reshapes the cornea, or the surface of the eye. It lifts up a layer of the cornea to create a protective flap. The laser next emits a beam that has enough energy to break the molecular bonds making up the tissue on the eye’s surface. Since this process is not a heating process, but photochemical, the surgeon sculpts precise amounts of corneal tissue without any damage to adjacent tissue. This aids in flattening the cornea for nearsightedness, steepening it for farsightedness, or smoothing out corneal irregularities to avoid astigmatism. The overall goal remains to shape the cornea so it does better focusing images onto the retina for sharper vision. The flap is then returned for a quick, natural recovery. Normally, patients experience little discomfort and return to work the next day.

Eye coverage may also give you the option of getting custom LASIK. This process allows the surgeon to customize the LASIK procedure according to a patient’s individual vision correction needs. Wavefront-technology gives the surgeon an advanced method of measuring individual optical distortions found in the eye by specifically measuring how light is distorted passing through the eye and then reflecting back. This creates an optical map of the eye that highlights individual imperfections, which allows more precise laser vision correction.

PRK, photorefractive keratectomy, is a surgical procedure that removes the surface layer of the cornea by gently scraping and using a computer-controlled laser to reshape the cornea to improve vision.

The cost for LASIK and PRK procedures and possible financing options differs depending on your eye and health insurance coverage.

Both, however, are examples of how far medicine has gone and how eye coverage can help you improve your vision. Of course eye coverage also includes eye exams, which are just as important as any surgery in keeping up your vision. After all, they are your eyes and you need to take care of them. Wear glasses or contacts if you have to and get screened for eye conditions such as diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, cataract, and macular degeneration. Eye coverage helps with all of this, but you have to be the one who gets eye coverage and then follows up on it.