Vision Insurance in Colorado: What You Need to Know

Vision insurance reduces the price of routine preventative eye care, such as eye exams, and prescription contact lenses and glasses. With some vision insurance plans in Colorado, you can also get a discount on elective vision correction surgeries like LASIK. While many big medical insurance plans offer limitless benefits under certain conditions, vision insurance tends to be organized as discount or wellness benefit plans. This means it offers specific discounts and benefits for an annual premium.

Essentially, vision discount and wellness plans let you save money by covering costs. You can use vision insurance to buy glasses or to lower the cost of improving your eyewear, for example by adding photochromic lenses.

Make sure you understand all the costs and benefits of a vision insurance plan before you buy. If you’re covered by your job, you should also remember that vision insurance plans work differently from other types of health insurance. Your eye doctor can offer guidance about your vision plan before you have an exam or buy eyewear, so you don’t get surprised by costs at the end.

Here, we will use the term vision insurance to describe wellness and discount plans which offer vision benefits and also for standard health plans which include vision benefits alongside covering eye diseases, injuries, and conditions.

Where Can You Buy Vision Insurance in Colorado?

You can get group vision insurance through your employer, school district, or association, or government programs like Medicare. What if you’re not eligible for a group plan? Well, most vision insurance providers have policies you can buy individually too.

Indemnity health insurance (a traditional form of health insurance), HMOs (a group of healthcare providers that offer healthcare at lowered rates to plan members), and PPOs (networks of healthcare providers which offer healthcare at a fixed lower rate to plan members) which have contracts with managed vision care networks will often have vision insurance as a value-added benefit.

The benefits of vision insurance include getting routine preventative eye care services at lower prices and having access to a network of providers such as eyewear retailers, vision laboratories, LASIK surgeons, ophthalmologists, and optometrists

Vision Insurance Plans in Colorado

There are two general types of vision insurance: discount vision plans and vision benefits packages. Discount vision plans offer eye care and eyewear at lower rates when you’ve paid a membership fee or annual premium. Vision benefits packages give you free eye care services and eyewear within a predetermined price range when you purchase a membership fee or annual premium and a reasonable co-pay (fixed cost) when you use a service.

These packages and plans may include a deductible, which is a fixed amount you have to pay for yourself before your insurance benefits will kick in. These two types of vision insurance can be customized to work for many different customers such as unions and companies in Colorado.

Coverage and Discounts Commonly Covered by Vision Plans

• Eye exams
• Contact lenses
• Glasses frames and lenses
• Lens coatings and enhancements
• Lower prices for LASIK and PRK

Good vision insurance providers will generally have services to solve any issues with your eye care practitioner or answer any questions you might have.

The Price of Vision Insurance

The price of vision insurance can vary. A good example is Vision Service Plan, the biggest US provider. Do remember that the benefits associated with VSP plans will vary between different plans, and visit the VSP website if you’re interested to learn more. However, here are some savings associated with a VSP standard vision plan for individual buyers as of January 2017:

Eye exam
Cost without insurance: $163
Cost with VSP: $10 co-pay
Saving with VSP: $153

Eyeglass frames/single vision lenses
Cost without insurance: $150 – 190
Cost with VSP: $25 co-pay
Saving with VSP: $215

Photochromic lenses
Cost without insurance: $109
Cost with VSP: $70
Saving with VSP: $39

Anti-reflective coating
Cost without insurance: $113
Cost with VSP: $69
Saving with VSP: $44

You will generally pay for group vision insurance via flexible spending accounts (FSAs) or payroll deductions. FSAs, or “cafeteria plans”, let employees use pre-tax money to buy specific health benefits, with vision insurance being one example. This is a good use of money as the policy is paid for with income that is put aside for healthcare costs and won’t be taxed. With an individual vision insurance plan, for example if you’re self-employed or can’t get vision insurance through work, you will likely receive a bill annually or monthly.

Ideally, you should compare multiple vision insurance providers to ensure that you get the best price for your eye care needs.

Frequently Asked Questions

Other Insurances