What is Family Vision Care?

Family vision care may have two meanings. It can refer to the many vision care offices that specialize in treating whole families, usually by performing routine exams on toddlers to adults and either treating or recommending further treatment as needed for any problems. Another definition of family vision care, which may be more familiar to many, is insurance that pays for a certain amount of care per year.

There are many optometrist and some ophthalmologist offices that bill themselves as offering family vision care. This generally means that they can perform exams and possibly procedures on little kids to adults. It may be convenient to have the same vision care specialists for a whole family. It can provide excellent continuity of care over the years, and especially with children any concerning conditions can be watched from year to year by the same staff, so that changes may be noted more readily.

Another advantage to doctors who see people at all stages of life is that children, when they are adults, can retain the same doctor. Of course this isn’t always possible. Sometimes a doctor moves or retires. Yet this doesn’t always occur and many people like knowing they can see the same trusted eye specialist for many years.

The other definition of family vision care is that it is insurance that can help pay part or nearly all of the costs for routine exams, and it may even help pay for glasses, lenses, and contact lenses. Many people are offered family vision care insurance through their work, and it can often be fairly inexpensive to cover a whole family, perhaps about $10-$20 US Dollars (USD) per month. Depending upon the terms of the plan, this can represent quite a savings if there are several people in a family who wear glasses or who have any chronic eye conditions.

Each family vision care plan is different, but many are similar to a Health Maintenance Organization (HMO). They may require people to use certain available optometrists or ophthalmologists or they may allow people to pick their own specialists. Choices can be many or few. Many plans have minimum free services per year, such as paying fully for a yearly eye exam, and possibly paying for glasses including a small amount for frames once a year or once every two years. This type of insurance can possibly cover emergency exams, though these might be covered under regular health insurance too, and usually any type of traumatic eye injury is definitely covered under regular insurance.

The name family vision care says it all. This kind of care tends to be routine and preventative and may not fully cover serious eye conditions. However, preventative care is indeed valuable, and for a small price, having insurance like this can make it financially easier to get yearly exams.