It doesn’t take much for employers to SEE (pun intended) why group vision insurance is such a great option to offer to their employees. Not only can the insurance improve your employee’s overall health, but I’ve have many employers cover the benefit fully because the cost is relatively low and the benefits can be great.
One thing you don’t want to do is go into the plan blindly, so I put together fifteen terms that should make understanding group vision insurance just a little bit easier.
- Premium – The payment that keeps the policy in place (usually paid monthly).
- Insured – The individual eligible to use the coverage and recipient of the insurance benefits.
- Coverage period – Timeframe in which your policy is in force (typically a one-year period).
- Deductible – The amount of money that the insured must pay before the insurance company pays their portion of the bill.
- Co-payment – A stated amount that the insured pay for covered services.
- Co-insurance – This is a stated percentage for covered services. The percentage that you see is typically the amount that the insurance company pays. Typically, the insurance company pays the higher percentage.
- In-Network Provider – A vision doctor or provider that has a contract with your vision insurance company for preset coinsurance or copayments.
- Out of Network Provider - A vision doctor or provider that does not have a contract with your vision insurance company for preset coinsurance or copayments. Your plan may or may not cover out of network services. If they are covered, they can be more costly than if you stayed in network. It’s just dependent on your plan.
- Vision Exam – An examination of your overall vision health. Also, an exam to see if you require some type of corrective lenses or contacts.
- Eyeglass lenses – These are the lenses that go into your frames that have been prescribed by your eye doctor.
- Contact Lenses – Alternative to frames and lenses, contacts temporarily go directly on the eye to correct vision problems.
- Exclusion – These are services that are not covered or excluded by the insurance carrier.
- Preauthorization – Approval that needs to be completed prior to certain procedures or services can be done.
While these terms may not fully explain group vision insurance, they may be able to help you see the value in offering the benefits once you see the quotes. The last thing that you want is to have something that you don’t understand.