DIRECT-BILLING TO YOUR EXTENDED MEDICAL INSURANCE IS EASY – BECAUSE, HEY – IT’S 2016!

January 15, 2016 By vidaeyecare800 In Updates /  

Happy New Year!

Did you know that at VIDA we are able to direct-bill to your extended medical insurance providers? You’re probably already used to direct-billing at your dentist or pharmacy, but there have been excellent advances in the past few years for eye care professionals. Early last year, we were thrilled to get started with a new online service by Telus Health. Extended medical providers sign up to be part of the service, and if yours happens to be one of them, direct billing for your eye exam fee and eye-wear orders is really efficient! Later in 2015, a couple other providers actually launched their own online systems as well. We love being able to offer this convenient service to our patients. When you come for your next visit, just bring in your extended medical card with the appropriate numbers that we will need.

Now that it’s 2016, a lot of extended medical plans have reset and you may have new amounts available to you depending on your last submission date and how many years you are required to wait between claims.

Your particular plan coverage is confidential to you and we usually do not have access to any of the specific details, so have a look at what you’re eligible for in advance. However, certain companies allow us to do what is called a ‘predetermination’, where we can basicallyinsurance-bn pretend to submit a claim for you and see what you will be covered for. Right now, we can do this for Chamber of Commerce, Great-West Life, and Standard Life. For all other companies, we only find out what you’re covered for once we make an actual claim on your behalf.

For those of you with more than one insurance policy, certain companies will allow us to coordinate with the secondary insurance provider as well, so bring that card with you too! Some companies only allow secondary coverage to be submitted manually by the plan member. If this is the case, we will give you an extra receipt for you to submit.

If you’re not sure if your policy allows direct-billing, or if you don’t know what your coverage is when you come in, I tell patients, “we can always try”. It only takes a few minutes to complete the submission on your behalf, and if it works out – bonus!

Here are the extended medical providers that we can currently direct-bill to (we hope the list will grow in 2016!):

 

Manulife Financial
Industrial Alliance
Great-West Life
Maximum Benefit
Sun Life
Standard Life
Chamber of Commerce
Johnson Inc.
Cowan
Pacific Blue Cross
Desjardins
Green Shield

So, don’t forget about your extended medical insurance this year! If it has been 1-2 years since your last eye exam, give us a call or send an email to make an appointment with one of our amazing eye doctors. Be sure to mention that you have extended medical insurance, and we can even take down your plan numbers at the time of booking.

Best wishes to you all for 2016!

Lindsay

p.s. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments.

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Where in the optical world would you like to go? Let our NEW BLOG take you there!

October 16, 2015 By vidaeyecare800 In Welcome /   21 Comments

While we don’t actually offer world tours here, we do invite you to be wildly curious about one of your most amazing features – your eyes! Perhaps there are aspects of eye health, vision, or corrective lenses…all things eye related really, that you’ve always wanted to ask more questions about.

We are seriously passionate about eyes and vision over here and love to share our knowledge with all of our patients. We could talk your ear off if you’d let us! Sometimes, though, there isn’t enough time to get through all of the awesome information in your visit. You may have to return to work, or home to your family, or to that big event! Also, it’s a lot of information to take in all at once.

So, let’s say you’ve come in for your eye exam and have learned that your eyes are healthy, you can see very well at distance, but now need a prescription for reading glasses. Or, maybe you’ve come to see us and have found out that there is an eye health concern that needs some focus and attention. Maybe we’ve fit you with a pair of contact lenses to correct your astigmatism. What IS astigmatism, anyway? What is the difference between bifocal lenses and progressive lenses? And what about those Transitions lenses? How can I prevent macular degeneration or other eye diseases? Why did Dr. Lee ask me about what I eat during my eye health exam? Is she a foodie?…

Here at VIDA Eyecare, we really want you to feel confident and enthused about your eye health, eyewear and vision! We are going to be writing about some specific topics that we don’t always get a chance to delve deep into when you’re here for your exam.

My name is Lindsay, and I’m a licensed optician and contact lens fitter. I’ve been doing this for over 5 years now, and I love to geek-out with my patients! I’m super excited that I will be a contributor here and sharing my knowledge with you. As I search for new interesting topics and happenings to write about I will, no doubt, be learning new things myself.

With this blog, we endeavour to take you on an eye-health care journey! So, please… tell us – where would you like us to take you? Let us know your questions or topics of interest by leaving a comment below.

Hope to hear from you!

Lindsay

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