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.

Tags: Contact Lenses

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.

Tags: Contact Lenses

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.

Tags: Contact Lenses

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 ?

Tags: Contact Lenses

Do you want another $10, $30, $70, $110 or more? Read this:
Once you become a new customer – OR if you’re already a customer – we will give you $10 for each and every person you refer to http://clecontactlenses.com, who places an order and becomes a new customer between now and November 15th, 2009.

There’s no limit to how many $10 checks or credits you can earn. If you refer 4 people get $40, 14 people get $140. Here’s how it works:

1) Call us today at 1-877-536-7373 and mention NEW CUSTOMER PROMO 111509.
2) Give the customer service operator your name and/or the name of the person you are referring.
3) Place your order.
4) Receive your instant credit OR your check.

Here are some ideas on how to refer folks and earn some extra money:
1) Send an email to anyone that you’re comfortable referring & tell them you order your contact lenses and/or lens supplies from http://clecontactlenses.com. Ask them to call in their first order and tell us that YOU referred them and we will credit your account for that person once they order. They will also get a $10 credit coupon to use on their second order. It’s a WIN WIN for you and them !!

2) Post a message to your friends or fans on Facebook with the same message. Say something like…”Hey if you need contact lenses you should check out http://clecontactlenses.com. I get my lenses there and if you mention my name when you call (1-877-536-7373) to order you will get a $10 credit and I will get $10 bucks as well !!”
3) Send out a Tweet to your followers on Twitter. Say something like: “If you need contact lenses chk out clecontactlenses.com. Call in your order and mention my name & get $10 off and I’ll get $10 as well…”

Tags: Contact Lenses

Do contact Lenses and glasses used to correct vision improve a college student’s core GPA (grade point average)? The results posted were quite astounding.

Seventy one percent of the college students polled who wore no lenses or glasses when they should have, reported an average grade point average of 3.12 (a resounding “B”). Not bad but certainly far from the goal we hope our children aspire to. Those same college students reported an average improvement of nearly .44 points or a median grade point average of 3.58 in the semester following their prescription and subsequent use of corrective lenses (either contact lenses and/or glasses). Perhaps even more impressive were the students polled who only wore contact lenses? These students reported a .58 point grade point average improvement semester over semester.

Now the debate amongst the academics and the eye care professionals in our office has begun. Is the marked difference between not wearing contact lenses or glasses in the classroom and wearing them proof positive that corrective lenses can and do improve a students grades ? The side debate in our office has grown to include, whether or not the further improvement in grade point average for the contact lens users is due to the fact that they are more diligent students, benefiting more from their contact lenses (or “enhancing” their reported results in the classroom.)

While the jury is out on exactly how much better student’s grades can or will be when they chose to wear some form of corrective lenses, there is a consensus among our eye care professionals that contact lenses can actually help improve your grades.

Tags: Contact Lenses

In 1999 researchers in Germany performed the first cross linking procedure to halt the progression of Keratoconus. The surgery involves debrading the corneal epithelium and introducing riboflavin ( vitamin B) followed by UVA light exposure. Riboflavin protects the posterior cornea, lens and retina from exposure to the UVA. The target tissue is the anterior 300 um of the stroma thereby increasing collagen strength. This has shown to delay and in some cases even stop the progression of the corneal thinning. The increased collagen fiber diameter and repopulation of keratocytes in the anterior section of the corneal stroma has halted the progression of Keratoconus. The ultimate goal is to avoid corneal transplants and permit good quality vision with either eye glasses or contact lenses.

These studies have also demonstrated that the earlier this surgery is performed, the better the long term results are. Currently, there are studies being performed in the US and there is a great anticipation that this cross linking therapy will be the answer to a visually debilitating condition.

Tags: Contact Lenses

Mickey Mouse Wears Frequency Toric Contact Lenses and I can prove it.

Last week we took our first ever family trip to Disney World in Orlando, Florida. For anyone who hasn’t been to Disney lately (it’s been nearly 15 years for me), it really has grown. There are now 6 or 7 parks (which include two water parks) and probably more than 20 different hotels. More rides, more stores, more restaurants and a really cool safari. All of that aside, let’s never forget who started and remains at the heart of Disney… Mickey Mouse. Now go ahead and ask how and why has Mickey Mouse become a topic of conversation on a replacement contact lens website?

While at a character dinner in one of the restaurants in the Magic Kingdom I struck up a conversation with none other than - The Mouse. Mickey Mouse. While you may find it funny or not too believable, as the mouse is not supposed to “talk to the guests”- I was able to get him to chat with me when I asked him how in the heck he could see so well from inside of his suit. With a flick of his head and a motion of his arms he appeared to laugh and from inside of the suit. Then I heard him say, I’d be blind if I weren’t wearing contact lenses right now. I laughed my butt off. Always the salesman, I told him I was a partner in an online contact lens company and would love to sell contacts to Mickey Mouse. I asked him what type he wore and he told me Frequency Toric. I tried to hand him one of my cards and he motioned at a laugh and pointed to his sides, where it was obvious there was nowhere to put it. I wished him well, repeated the name of our website. Now I find myself sitting here in the office hoping to one day get an email or even better, an order – from the Big Cheese!

Hey, it’s the least he could do after all we just gave him this past week!!

Tags: Contact Lenses

While there is no hard and fast rule as to whether you can wear contact lenses while swimming, it is important to use a measure of common sense and to understand exactly how contact lenses stay in place.

Contact lenses don’t actually adhere to the eye but rather, sit on its surface. The natural moisture in both the eye and in the contact lens, coupled with the fact that lenses are custom shaped to fit the unique curvature of the eye – create a natural bond. The bond however was not made to stand up to the rigors of swimming, at least not without taking sufficient precautions.

When swimming in a chlorinated pool or in a salt water pool, lake or ocean it’s important to wear some form of eye protection such as swimming goggles or a mask. The swim mask works by keeping excess moisture from dislodging the bond between the contact lens and the eyes surface. Additionally, swimming goggles create a natural pocket of air between the eye and the water. The pocket of air, in addition to keeping water out, helps keep the lenses in because of the air pressure present between the mask and the eye. This pressure is often more than enough to keep contacts in place without shifting.

Another option to swimming with contact lenses on is to have a custom made pair of swimming goggles or mask which incorporate a prescription lens into the fabrication of the protective eye wear. This is a much more reliable way to insure 20/20 vision underwater but can be a much more expensive option.

Tags: Contact Lenses

While offer every major brand, we are always curious to hear what the public has to say so from time to time we take their pulse.

To start the “debate” I’d like to throw out a few statistics…
1) More than 80 million people currently wear contact lenses worldwide.
2) More than 74% of those contact lens wearers are between the ages of 18 & 48.
3) The contact lens was originally envisioned by Leonardo DaVinci and the idea of the corneal contact lens was further developed by Rene Descartes. Thomas Young used Descartes ideas to later develop the contact lens.
4) The average price of contact lenses online is 43% less than those found at your eye care professional and some “retail” outlets.

While it is not for us to say what the best contact lenses on the market are, we are comfortable saying that some of our top selling brands include the Acuvue brand from Johnson & Johnson, Frequency brand and Proclear brands from Coopervision as well as Boston EO, Focus Dailies and Air Optix are also very popular brands.

In the summer months our contact lenses with built in UV protection like the Acuvue Moist brand contacts seem to sell a bit better than in the colder months.

Our most popular solutions are the Boston Advanced, Boston Simplus and Boston Original brands as well as OxySept and Menicare CDS for rigid, gas permeable lenses.

So, jump in and let us know your thoughts. In your opinion, what are the best contact lenses ?

Tags: Contact Lenses