Carol
From the charges you are paying one would assume that you are getting your lenses privately rather than through Hospital Eye Service as standard HES charge is £48 per lens and NHS appointments would be free of charge.You mention Northampton General, do you attend there for lenses or just follow-up for your KC? I am a bit confused as Northampton General used to supply lenses free of charge
Funding lenses etc. (long post)
Moderators: Anne Klepacz, John Smith, Sweet
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Anne Klepacz
- Committee
- Posts: 2293
- Joined: Sat 20 Mar 2004 5:46 pm
- Keratoconus: Yes, I have KC
- Vision: Graft(s) and contact lenses
Funding lenses
Paul
As Ali says, anyone getting their lenses through a hospital eye dept should be getting them at the NHS rate ie £48 per lens with any changes in prescription in the same year covered by that initial payment (lost lenses or spare lenses are a different matter and have to paid for at full price). When we did our membership survey before the 2003 conference, over 90% of our members were getting their lenses at the NHS rate (some of those that weren't got them privately through their own choice). As a result of that information, one of our members applied to his health authority for a refund for all the lenses he'd paid for at full rate over the years and got back over £600! So it's worth asking questions!
On the solutions front, the KC Group did try to take this up about 10 years ago through one determined member. But I'm afraid we got totally mired in bureaucracy (different departments saying contradictory things) and gave up! But if you've got the energy.....
Anne
As Ali says, anyone getting their lenses through a hospital eye dept should be getting them at the NHS rate ie £48 per lens with any changes in prescription in the same year covered by that initial payment (lost lenses or spare lenses are a different matter and have to paid for at full price). When we did our membership survey before the 2003 conference, over 90% of our members were getting their lenses at the NHS rate (some of those that weren't got them privately through their own choice). As a result of that information, one of our members applied to his health authority for a refund for all the lenses he'd paid for at full rate over the years and got back over £600! So it's worth asking questions!
On the solutions front, the KC Group did try to take this up about 10 years ago through one determined member. But I'm afraid we got totally mired in bureaucracy (different departments saying contradictory things) and gave up! But if you've got the energy.....
Anne
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Carol Vines
- Regular contributor
- Posts: 70
- Joined: Mon 09 May 2005 2:58 pm
- Keratoconus: Yes, I have KC
- Vision: Contact lenses
- Location: Market Harborough
ali - sorry to confuse; i used to have my lenses fitted by northampton general but the fit was never very good; about ten years into KC i asked for a second opinion as i couldn't even see the top line of the chart.
i was referred to moorfields who said it was not the KC changing that was causing my vision to fail but bad fitting lenses; they refit me and i then decided to find another optician who was more experienced at fitting lenses for KC, which meant i had to go to a private practice.
however i always paid for my lenses from northampton general, think it used to be about 22 quid a lens at the time, never had free lenses since i left school 22 years ago. so now i only attend northampton for ongoing check ups of KC; though i haven't gone for 3 years because it felt like a waste of both my time and there's. hope that makes more sense
gareth - i'm going to my optician tonight, in the middle of refitting my right eye, so will ask him about the rules on changing hospitals, see what he says.
anne - thats very interesting about how KC sufferers can get help off the nhs - however i'm a little confused how he claimed and what he actually got it for, did he get money back for what he'd paid to his private optician?
i was referred to moorfields who said it was not the KC changing that was causing my vision to fail but bad fitting lenses; they refit me and i then decided to find another optician who was more experienced at fitting lenses for KC, which meant i had to go to a private practice.
however i always paid for my lenses from northampton general, think it used to be about 22 quid a lens at the time, never had free lenses since i left school 22 years ago. so now i only attend northampton for ongoing check ups of KC; though i haven't gone for 3 years because it felt like a waste of both my time and there's. hope that makes more sense
gareth - i'm going to my optician tonight, in the middle of refitting my right eye, so will ask him about the rules on changing hospitals, see what he says.
anne - thats very interesting about how KC sufferers can get help off the nhs - however i'm a little confused how he claimed and what he actually got it for, did he get money back for what he'd paid to his private optician?
Caz
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rosemary johnson
- Champion
- Posts: 1478
- Joined: Tue 19 Oct 2004 8:42 pm
- Keratoconus: Yes, I have KC
- Vision: Contact lenses
- Location: East London, UK
A further complication is those (comaratively few) of us wh are piggy-backing.
last October, I was told it was the standard NHS charge for a 6-months supply.
I paid this on 1st November 2004, and finally got the things in June. That's another story.
Appointment before last was asked hy I did this, as they should count as "accessories" to the use of the scleral that goes over the top so should be free.
Huh??? Why was I told different then?? Can I have a refund?
Last appointment, it all seemed to be a total muddle - no memory of either asking me for money nor telling me I didn't need to have paid.
Can't order new soft lenses (daily disposables) at all as no-one knows whether to ask me to pay for them or just put the order through.
Apparently, it is *my* job to sort this out!!!!!!
Though after 4 useless trips to MEH to collect the soft lenses only to find they weren't there, and no-one knew where they were, when they might turn up, or even who I was (!), not to mention a small fortune in phone calls (!!), it would probably be cheaper to go out to spec savers.
If I could get MEH actually to write down what to ask, eg Specsavers, to sell me.
Postcode lottery, or just incompetance in the bureaucracy department??
ROsemary (very pissed off)
last October, I was told it was the standard NHS charge for a 6-months supply.
I paid this on 1st November 2004, and finally got the things in June. That's another story.
Appointment before last was asked hy I did this, as they should count as "accessories" to the use of the scleral that goes over the top so should be free.
Huh??? Why was I told different then?? Can I have a refund?
Last appointment, it all seemed to be a total muddle - no memory of either asking me for money nor telling me I didn't need to have paid.
Can't order new soft lenses (daily disposables) at all as no-one knows whether to ask me to pay for them or just put the order through.
Apparently, it is *my* job to sort this out!!!!!!
Though after 4 useless trips to MEH to collect the soft lenses only to find they weren't there, and no-one knew where they were, when they might turn up, or even who I was (!), not to mention a small fortune in phone calls (!!), it would probably be cheaper to go out to spec savers.
If I could get MEH actually to write down what to ask, eg Specsavers, to sell me.
Postcode lottery, or just incompetance in the bureaucracy department??
ROsemary (very pissed off)
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Carol Vines
- Regular contributor
- Posts: 70
- Joined: Mon 09 May 2005 2:58 pm
- Keratoconus: Yes, I have KC
- Vision: Contact lenses
- Location: Market Harborough
rosemary what an absolute nightmare for you; and of course in the meantime they give no consideration to the fact you need them lenses to see so you can get on with life as normal as possible.
i do hope they sort it for you soon, as said many times before by others because we "look" ok people don't appreciate how dependent KC sufferers are on their lenses to get reasonable vision.
i do hope they sort it for you soon, as said many times before by others because we "look" ok people don't appreciate how dependent KC sufferers are on their lenses to get reasonable vision.
Caz
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