CLE Contact Lenses

Unless you live under a rock you’ve surely heard the phrase “Obama Care,” which has also been referred to as “health care reform” and “national health care.” Regardless of your political affiliation, proposed legislation as far reaching as the health care reform act would undoubtedly effect every person & every aspect of health care. So how would the proposed health care reform affect your vision care?

One of the most commonly asked questions in our practice and for the thousands of folks we correspond with each month has been “precisely how will the proposed health care reform affect my vision care, my flexible spending account and my annual visit to the eye doctor?”

While, unfortunately we’re not privy to what the actual proposed bill(s) will and will not cover – we have read a summary of both the latest proposed House & Senate bills. Each bill has its nuances and neither clearly or directly outlines how vision care will be impacted.

Both the House & Senate bills will theoretically bring tens of millions of new insured folks into the health care system. Initially, what sounds like a boon for health care providers like eye doctor’s may end up costing them hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars because of the new proposed caps on reimbursements to the medical professionals. Capping reimbursements even further will undoubtedly drive the profession to find new ways to “expedite” and “streamline” procedures – which is not always in the patients long term best interest.

Unfortunately, while we would like to have given a more “informed” answer to the pointed question of how proposed health care reform will impact your vision care, visits to your eye doctor, contact lenses, prescription glasses, medical procedures like Lasik and corrective eye surgeries – we will need to see more in the way of detail in the proposed plans. And, until our elected officials decide it is in our best interest to see and participate in these discussions – we remain skeptical.

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We again find ourselves in a wonderful yet “scary” place, the New Year ! It’s so cliché to say, “time flies by…” but it really does. With all of the New Year resolutions that you may or may not have made, I’d propose a simple but very important one.

Take Better Care of Your Eyes in 2010.

In a recent poll taken of college age men and women, only 13% of the students polled could spell the name of their eye doctor. An even more disturbing statistic was that more than 67% of the men polled didn’t know what their vision was. The number was slightly better for the female students but still more than 54% didn’t know what their vision was.

Your eyes are not just the portals to your soul but also an incredibly important sensory organ, that all too often is completely taken for granted. Degenerative eye diseases can permenantly harm and even take away your vision if not diagnosed and treated in a proactive manner.

Let this serve as a simple and hopefully pointed reminder that taking your vision for granted is a mistake. An annual eye exam with your eye doctor is not mandatory but highly advisable. The ocular nerve is one of the most complex aspects of the human anatomy and thankfully there are some fantastic diagnostic tools which can serve to work as an early warning indicator of potential problems.

So in 2010, take a minute to look at yourself in the mirror and when you do, tell those eyes looking back at you that you’ll be taking better care of them in 2010 – because you really appreciate all that they do for you.

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Do you have a flexible spending account? Did you know that if you don’t use the funds in it by the end of the year, you will likely lose the money that’s in it? Don’t let a dime of your FSA account go to waste. I’ve taken the liberty below of spending some time to explain more about the flexible spending account arrangement and how to maximize its benefits.

A flexible spending account / arrangement (FSA), or Flexible Spending Account, as they are often called, is one of a number of tax-advantaged accounts that can be set up through an employer or through an employer’s cafeteria plan. An FSA allows an employee to set aside a portion of their earnings to pay for qualified expenses. The qualified expenses are most often established in the cafeteria plan, most commonly for medical expenses but also for dependent care or other expenses. Money deducted from an employee’s pay into an FSA is currently exempt from ordinary payroll taxes, resulting in a payroll tax savings for the employee.

The most popular flexible spending account is the medical expense FSA (also medical FSA or health FSA). An FSA may be accessed by traditional paper claims or the more popular FSA debit card which is also known as a Flexcard.

Most employer cafeteria plans offer two different flexible spending account options; one that is for medical expenses and the other that is for dependent care expenses. Currently funds cannot be transferred from one FSA to another.

Medical expense FSA

The most common type of FSA is the medical expense FSA. This flex spending account is used to pay for medical expenses which are not paid for by insurance. This can include co-payments, deductibles and coinsurance for the employee’s health plan. It may also include expenses not covered by the health plan, such as dental and vision expenses and in some cases over the counter drugs. A medical FSA can’t be used to pay for health insurance premiums, cosmetic surgery or items that improve “general health”. All items purchased with medical expense FSA funds must be intended to treat or prevent a specific medical condition.

The annual caps for a medical FSA varies by employer. Employers generally limit the annual amount each employee can contribute. Should the employee leave or be terminated and therefore no longer pay in to the plan, the employer does not recover any amount they may have pre-funded into the FSA from the employee’s payroll deduction.

Flexible Spending Accounts debit cards allow for an automatic transfer of pre-tax dollars from an employee account when paying for qualified medical expenses. Ask your employer if they have a debit card option as it is much easier to use than the traditional paper claims process.

An FSA’s coverage period ends either at the time the “plan year” ends for your plan or at the time when your coverage under that plan ends. Example: Loss of coverage due to a separation from the employer.

Use it or lose it

One of the major drawbacks identified in the traditional FSA’s is that the money must be spent within your coverage period as defined by the benefits cafeteria plan coverage definition. Any money that is left unspent, at the end of the coverage period, is forfeited back to the administer. This is also known as the “use it or lose it” provision. An unfortunate possibility, especially in the case of an immediate layoff, is that should you have unused contributions in your FSA and no additional qualifying claims during your coverage period you will lose these funds. The other side of this coin is that if the payroll taxes you saved on your employee contributions exceed the amount you forfeited then you will have saved money. Also, the annual contribution amount must remain the same throughout the year unless certain qualifying events occur, such as the birth of a child or death of a spouse.

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Folks, it’s completely true, the economy is getting better. Even though all that we hear are the horrible stories on the news, magazines, online and in the newspapers (those of us that still actually read the newspapers!), that this company is chapter 11, this company is out of business, this company just laid off 500 workers, the stock market went down x amount of points, housing prices are going lower, you name it the headlines are out there every day.

My headline that The Economy IS Getting Better is true, but it is not true for all of us…. It’s true for those of us that are moving ahead, ignoring the headlines, living our lives, adapting our businesses, making ourselves invaluable at work, and mostly just forging ahead with confidence that we will make the economy better. When you do that, guess what happens….it does! The economy gets better and those of us that have been just forging ahead are now multiple steps ahead of those that were sitting and wallowing about how difficult things are and how bad they are. By no means am I kicking anyone while they’re down, yes there are some tough things going on out there. With that said, it is important to keep in mind for every business that missteps another steps or is quietly started and takes the business, and employees from the defunct company.

If anything, Now is one of the greatest times to forge ahead and push yourself and your business ahead of the pack, not just by a necks length but by miles. It’s actually a great time to start an expansion plan or open a new business or new business line as you can find incredible deals on leases and subleases, and you can also find great locations that were never available up until now (don’t wait too long) and don’t catch yourself saying “I will look when things really get better out there, by that time it will be too late, the deals will be far & few between and those juicy locations will now be taken by someone that had a similar idea, but had the courage to act!

As important as everything I mentioned above is, be sure to be positive and have confidence. Do not blame things on the economy or the past, look at the present and plan for the even better times ahead. Did you know these are the times that great fortunes are made? When the masses are hiding and cowering in fear, the true entrepreneur – ventures out into the “dark” and takes a calculated risk. The entrepreneur – takes advantage of incredible leases, incredible deals being offered by suppliers and he/she feeds our insatiable appetite for the new, fresh, exciting, fun.

So what can you do to be one of the bold entrepreneurs who will use these times to start a new business, build an existing business ?:

Shake it up a bit, if you have a retail store, make sure you re-arrange your displays a little bit, put some new lighting in, freshen everything up by adding some new paint or new floors, get some new updated interior and exterior signage (if your landlord and/or town allow it), get some new brochures and posters for your store, and absolutely update or add on an e-commerce website. Have a grand re-opening and offer some giveaways or some great deals, have free coffee and donuts or brownies and be proactive about it. Don’t do this once, try to do it once a month or once every other month. Make sure your shelves are nicely stocked and full with merchandise (nobody likes to buy from a store where the shelves are bare, unless perhaps it’s a going out of business sale. You need to build excitement again, make people want to shop at your location, make them feel excited and confident about spending money, confident that the product and service they are buying is worth more than what they are paying!

I leave off with these words of advice my father once told me that “whether you think you will be successful or you think you will fail, you are right”

So how will you… go out and get yours ?

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