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Have you ever wondered if you could buy prescription glasses online with your vision insurance? Well, the answer to that ultimately depends on who your vision insurance provider is, if they have a website you could utilize, or if there are websites out there that accept your specific insurance plan directly on their website. Take a look below where we cover if all insurance plans could be used online, an insurance plan that has its own website, and tons of websites that accept a wide variety of vision insurance plans directly on their website.

Buy Prescription Glasses Online With Insurance

As technology has advanced over the years, there are some online retailers that are now allowing you to apply your vision insurance benefits directly to your online order. That means whatever your vision benefits would’ve covered would be deducted from your total. So overall you will be paying less money out-of-pocket ahead of time just as if you went in-store, and best of all you could do it all from the comfort of your own home.

Can All Vision Insurance Plans Be Used Online?

Not every vision insurance plan is able to be used online and it really comes down to what insurance plan each online retailer accepts.

If your insurance isn’t accepted online the other alternative would be to just pay for your glasses out of pocket and request an itemized receipt from the retailer you purchased your glasses from and submit it to your insurance provider for reimbursement. Going with this route you could basically almost utilize any online eyewear retailer, and you really don’t have to worry about having problems getting an itemized receipt to submit to your insurance provider as this is standard practice for all eyewear retailers.

Most insurance plans allow you to submit receipts from out-of-network providers for reimbursement, but to be safe it is always best to call your vision insurance provider to double-check if your specific plan has out-of-network benefits.

But, if you want to see if you could use your benefits online keep on reading to see which online retailers accept vision insurance benefits.

How To Buy Glasses Online With Insurance

If you want to purchase prescription glasses online with your insurance benefits the first thing you would need is of course a copy of your prescription and your vision insurance card if you have one. Not every vision insurance provider sends out ID cards, some can just search you by your name, date of bird, and zip code.

Have a copy of your prescription

After that, in order to order your prescription glasses online, you are going to need a current copy of your glasses prescription. Eyeglass prescriptions expire at various lengths depending on which state you live in. Some state’s optometry regulations make your eyeglass prescriptions expire two years from the date of the prescription, but there are also other states that have more relaxed regulations that allow eyeglass prescriptions to be valid for 10 years. Regardless, you need a prescription that is currently valid in the state that it was prescribed.

Get your pupillary distance (PD) measurement

You will also need your pupillary distance or also known as the PD measurement, this is the measurement of the distance between your eyes from the center of one pupil to the other. Some doctors provide this measurement on the prescription, or they could provide it to you if you reach out to them. Otherwise, if none of those options work for you, you could always measure your pupillary distance yourself, or have a friend help you measure it.

Where can you order glasses online with insurance?

Once you have your insurance information, prescription, and pupillary distance on hand you are now ready to place your prescription glasses order online with your insurance benefits.

Remember, not every online retailer can give you instant savings and the ability to apply your vision insurance benefits to your online order. In order to save you the time of having to search through every single online retailer, we have created a list below of all the online eyewear retailers where you could purchase prescription glasses online using your vision insurance benefits.

 

Eyeconic

Eyeconic was founded in 2011 and is the official website of vision insurance provider VSP Vision Care which is a nonprofit organization that was founded in 1955 by a group of optometrists in Oakland, California.

Eyeconic Eyewear gives you the ability to apply your benefits if you have vision insurance benefits from VSP Vision Care, Metlife Vision, Cigna Vision, and a few other discount plans.

If you have vision insurance benefits through any of those vision insurance providers, Using your vision benefits on Eyeconic’s website is super simple. All you need to do is visit Eyeconic’s insurance benefits page where you would provide some personal information to find your insurance benefits plan. After you connect your vision insurance plan to Eyeconic’s website you are all set and ready to place your order.

On Eyeconic’s website, you are able to utilize your insurance benefits to purchase your glasses, but you are also able to utilize your benefits to purchase contact lenses on Eyeconic’s website as well if that is what you prefer to use your vision insurance benefits on.

Target Optical

Target has always been one of my favorite retail stores to shop in but I honestly don’t have much experience with their optical department. At one point in time, I wanted to work there, and know that they offer a wide variety of designer eyewear. That being said, they also aren’t going to be the most affordable place to purchase your eyewear. But if designer eyewear is your thing, and your insurance is accepted here then why not?

Using your vision insurance benefits on Target Optical’s website is also very easy and straightforward. From the homepage, if you visit the vision insurance link on the bottom of the page you will get to the insurance page that basically gives you an idea of all your options. It does let you know which vision insurance plans you are able to use in-store or online, some insurance plans you will only be able to use in-store.

Target Optical accepts quite a few insurances online but some of the major ones include, Eye Med, Aetna, Humana, Blue View Vision, and many more. You can find a full list by visiting their insurance page here.

Visionworks

Some of you may have heard of Visionworks before, they are an American company that operates physical optical retail stores in 40 different states and the District of Columbia. They accept most insurance plans in-store if you are lucky enough to live near one of their retailer locations.

If you don’t live near a retailer location and want to do your purchase online, Visionworks does accept vision insurance online but only from a few select providers. Those providers include Davis Vision, FEP BlueVision. and Florida Blue BlueVision. You could visit their insurance page to find out more information.

If you are someone that is looking for designer eyewear, Visionworks has a great selection of designer frames for you to pick from. I honestly feel like some of their frames are on the expensive side, but occasionally you could find some sales and those can be great deals. And if you apply your vision insurance benefits to one of those deals you could save a good chunk of money.

Lenscrafters

Most have heard of or at the very least have seen Lenscrafters in one of their local malls. They are owned and operated by the largest eyewear company in the world, Luxottica. This means you are going to be able to find a wide selection of designer eyewear on Lenscrafter’s website since they pretty much own or license a majority of these brands.

If you are looking to use some vision insurance benefits online, Lenscrafters accepts a wide range of vision insurance plans through their website. Some of the most common providers accepted include EyeMed, Aetna, Blue View Vision, Ameritas, OptimaHealth, and many more. You can visit Lenscrafters insurance page to get a full list of insurance providers that are accepted online.

Once you enter in your information, you will be able to see what your benefits are, how much they are going to order, and what you will be paying out-of-pocket if you select a certain frame.

Warby Parker

If you have been a longtime eyeglass wearer you may have heard of Warby Parker. They are an online eyewear retailer that took the eyewear industry by storm when they offered affordable direct-to-customer-eyewear. That meant they design and manufacture all of their eyewear in-house, skipping out the middleman, and passing the savings onto their customers. They were also the first company to offer a home try-on program to let their customers try on their frames from the comfort of their own homes.

As far as using vision insurance benefits online with Warby Parker, they are only in-network with United Healthcare Spectera. So if that is your vision benefits provider you will be able to apply your vision insurance benefits directly to your order and only pay your out-of-pocket expenses. They also take a couple of other select plans from Davis Vision, but the only way to know for sure if they accept your plan is to visit Warby Parker’s insurance page and once you plug in your information it will let you know if you will be able to use your benefits online.

If your vision plan happens to work at Warby Parker, you might be surprised by how little you have to pay out of pocket due to Warby Parker’s affordable prices.

Glasses.com

If you are in search of designer eyewear Glasses.com is another great place to consider looking. As with most places that offer designer eyewear this isn’t going to be your most affordable option. The good thing is that they do accept a wide range of vision insurance plans which would help reduce the overall cost of your glasses.

Using your vision insurance benefits on Glasses.com is fairly simple. Glasses.com accepts many vision insurance plans on its website with some of the most common ones including Eyemed, Davis Vision, Superior Vision, Aetna, Humana, Ameritas, and many more. 

Glasses.com doesn’t have a specific insurance page for you to visit, but from Glasses.com’s homepage if you click on the main menu you will see a link that says vision insurance. When you click this you will be given the option to select your vision insurance provider and enter your personal information to pull up your individual plan.

Ray-Ban

We’ve all heard of Ray-Ban, they are most well known for their classic wayfarer and aviator-style sunglasses but they also have a large collection of prescription frames as well. In my opinion, this is the frame brand that people inquire about the most. As popular as they are, many people don’t know that on Ray-Ban’s website they accept a wide variety of insurance plans as well.

Ray-Ban’s website doesn’t have a dedicated insurance page. In order to use your vision insurance benefits, you would enter all of your details when you are going through the checkout process. From there, your insurance benefits would be deducted from your order and you will only be paying the out-of-pocket expenses.

Some vision insurance plans that are accepted include Aetna, Optima Health, EyeMed, Blue View Vision, Ameritas, Humana, and many more. You can visit Ray-Ban’s website to see the entire list of accepted plans and see if you could use your vision insurance benefits online.

Befitting Eyewear

Befitting is one of the newer online optical retailers, but they are partnered with a few of the largest vision insurance providers out there. Befitting offers some designer eyewear as well as in-house designed and manufactured frames to be able to provide their customers with a variety of different styles for every budget.

Befitting is in-network with vision insurance providers Davis Vision, Superior Vision, MES Vision, FEP Blue Vision, and many more. Using your benefits is simple, once you have your insurance plan and information entered in the amount you would be covered for your frames and lenses would automatically be deducted from your total, leaving you with only the out-of-pocket expenses.

Befitting does have an insurance page if you need more information or want to see if your insurance is accepted. It is worth noting that befitting does accept more insurance plans in-network than the three that are shown on the insurance page. The best way to know if your insurance is accepted is to click the button that says “Shop With Insurance” near the top of the page to see the full list of accepted insurance plans.

Can You Buy Glasses Online With Insurance?

Of course! You definitely could purchase glasses online with your insurance benefits. If you visit any of the online retailers that were mentioned above and your insurance plan is in-network with them online you will be able to apply your benefits directly to your order. That means the portion that your insurance benefits would cover will be deducted from your total, allowing you to only pay the out-of-pocket expense.

If your vision insurance plan isn’t accepted at any online retailer, the majority of the time you would be able to purchase at any online retailer and request an itemized receipt that you could submit to your vision insurance provider. This does mean that you will have to pay the entire amount of your glasses out-of-pocket and then wait for your insurance provider to reimburse you what they would’ve normally covered. If you decide to go this route you would need to ensure that your specific plan has out-of-network benefits. The only way to find this out is to look at your benefits guide or contact your vision insurance provider to find out.

Can You Use FSA or HSA For Prescription Glasses Online?

If you have Flexible Spending Accounts or Health Savings Accounts you most definitely can utilize those benefits online. Most FSA and HSA accounts issue you a card that is usually affiliated with Visa or MasterCard and is accepted that the majority of online eyewear retailers.

The good thing about having an FSA or HSA  is that you aren’t limited to the online retailers that are mentioned above. Most online eyewear retailers accept FSA and HSA cards as long as it is affiliated with Visa or MasterCard.

Don’t forget to request an itemized receipt from the retailer you purchased your glasses from. Most FSA or HSA providers will request this itemized receipt from you to verify your purchase.

Can You Use Vision Insurance Benefits To Purchase Contact Lenses Online?

Just like how you are able to use your vision insurance benefits to purchase your prescription glasses online, With most insurance plans you would be able to utilize your benefits online to purchase your prescription contact lenses online.

Keep in mind that the majority of insurance plans will only cover either prescription glasses, or prescription contacts, not both. There are a few exceptions out there in which the plan covers both contact lenses and glasses. Some even cover two pairs of glasses, but it depends on your vision plan so you will have to look at your health benefits guide or reach out to your vision insurance provider for exactly what they cover.

Using your vision insurance benefits online for your contact lenses is even easier than using your benefits to purchase glasses. There are no frame choices and lens options to pick from for contact lenses making the entire process much more streamlined and simple.

If you are looking to use your vision insurance benefits for contact lenses, the retailers above Eyeconic, Lenscrafters, VisionWorks, Warby Parker, and Target Optical all give you the option to utilize your benefits through their websites for contact lenses. Aside from those, here are some other great options.

• Contacts Direct – If you are looking to use your insurance benefits, Contacts Direct is a great option. They work with many big vision insurance providers such as EyeMed, Aetna, Superior Vision, Humana, Blue View Vision, and many more, you can visit their insurance page to find out if your plan is accepted there. The process is super simple and if you are out of insurance benefits you could take advantage of additional savings on some contact lens brands if you purchase a year’s supply. Occasionally, they will run promotions to give you more savings, and some of the promotions could even be combined with year supply savings. Generally, you are not able to combine insurance benefits with other savings and promotions.
• 1800Contacts – This is one of the most well-known online contact lens retailers out there with years of experience and great customer service. Best of all, they are in-network with work with some vision insurance providers to provide you with instant savings off of your order. 1800Contacts is in-network with vision insurance providers such as Blue View Vision, but you could visit their insurance page and enter your information to find out if your plan is accepted. If you are out of insurance benefits, 1800Contacts also has great annual savings and promotions that you could take advantage of. They also have an online exam to extend your prescription if it is expired.

Final Thoughts

Being able to utilize your vision insurance benefits online is truly amazing. This allows you to take advantage of those savings you would normally get when using your vision insurance benefits in-store, but instead of having to go in-store, these online retailers help you utilize those savings from the comfort of your own home.

Services like these have been around for a few years, but the global pandemic in 2020 forced many of us to remain in our homes to slow the spread. Online services such as these have been put more into the spotlight.

Have you used your vision insurance benefits online before? I would love to hear your experience in the comments below.