I'm aghast reading this about the charge of FOURTEEN DOLLARS. I took my PD myself the other day.
I put on an old pair of glasses, and standing far enough away from a mirror so I was looking straight ahead and not inward, I covered each eye in turn with a business-sized card. Using a Sharpie, I put a dot on each lens right over the pupil. Then I measured the distance between. My PD is 65. BTW, alcohol removes permanent marker from glasses. ;-) It took me 30 seconds to do this including the cleaning up of the lenses. You can ask a friend to do this for you if you want to double check your own measurement. When I was in my optometrist's office yesterday, I asked him casually what the PD was, and he said, "65". This was not on the written prescription that he gave me, but was in my medical records. He had used one of those measurement machines (to get a ballpark of where my prescription was, he described it.) It automatically measured the PD as well as other things. If your optometrist uses that machine and notes the PD in your record, you can ask for a copy of your medical records. You are entitled to these records under law, although they can charge a reasonable fee for copying. (It would be just one page, so really, how much could they charge?) Or you could measure your own PD like I did. Or just ask the doctor and then write it down yourself. Your PD should also be noted in the records of your optician if you're a previous customer, although you may not have a legal right to those records as you would with a physician or an optometrist. (Opticians are probably are not covered under the laws that govern medical professionals.) In my state (Maryland) I think the law mandates that optometrists have to provide patients with a written prescription, but it doesn't have to contain the PD. My optometrist was so friendly, though, I think I could have asked him to just write down my PD on my prescription and he would have. My exam charge yesterday was $60, but my insurance pays all except a $25 copay. My exam took less than 15 minutes. I ordered a pair of high index progressives in one of those bendable half frames from Zenni's last night. Total including shipping: $49.90. I can't wait to get them. If I'm happy with them, I'll place another order for a backup pair. If insurance covers any of your eye exam, you might want to call them and ask them for a referral to an optometrist, one who doesn't play these kind of games. Also let the insurance company know about your experience with this jerk. And it wouldn't hurt to call your State Board of Optometry to find out the laws that govern professional practice in your state. Good luck. On Sep 4, 5:39 am, bravesirrobin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Just went in for my yearly checkup, and left completely furious at my > (now) former optometrist. > > Last year was my introduction to glasses, and this optometrist seemed > like a nice guy so I went back. My first pair was a set of bifocals, > which didn't work out so well for all the computer work I do. Shortly > before I picked them up, though, I stumbled onto Glassy Eyes, which > keyed me in on getting them to tell me my PD. Since I was buying > glasses, I guess they felt it wasn't a big deal, so they told me what > it was. This gave me a nice enough vibe to go back. > > Two pairs of online progressives later, and today I'm not even looking > at the in-store samples. We did the exam, which showed my prescription > changing a bit. That all done, I asked if they'd do a PD measurement. > They said "Sure, but that now costs $14". > > I was totally aghast. Clearly, they knew why I wanted to know, knew > that giving it out undercut their business, and were going to try to > make up for their losses. At that point, I decided to give them a > chance: I said that if you don't measure my PD for free, I'll never > come back to this store. They said "fine". > > Do they really not make money doing eye exams? I'd think they at least > break even, and would care enough to want to keep me moderately > content. Oh well. > > I see where this is going. Soon enough, the prescription itself will > be secret, usable only by that store to make you glasses. Anyway, I'll > be going to local optometrists until I find one that will tell my my > PD for free. That'll be the one that does my next eye exam. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Check us out at the oft-updated http://www.glassyeyes.com! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "GlassyEyes" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/glassyeyes?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
