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Cost of Lenses

Posted: Wed 15 Nov 2017 11:49 am
by NightOwl
Hi All,

I’ve found online on the DoH Guidance that the Contact Lens charge under the NHS is £57 per lens. However, my contact lens provider (who provides the service under the NHS) is charging me £65 per lens. When I questioned the price difference, I was told that it was for associated costs such as posting out the lenses (still a bit steep for a first class stamp!). I’m a bit baffled by this as I thought the NHS charge of £57 covered all of this.

Anybody had a similar experience?

Thanks for any and all responses.

Re: Cost of Lenses

Posted: Wed 15 Nov 2017 1:06 pm
by Lia Williams
The hospital I attend charges £3.00 for postage but nothing extra if I collect my lenses.

If I'm ordering piggyback lenses I would be charged £6.00 as the soft lenses would be sent separately from the RGPs.

Lia

Re: Cost of Lenses

Posted: Wed 15 Nov 2017 4:20 pm
by NightOwl
Thanks for your reply, Lia. Those charges are quite reasonable.

I will be paying an additional cost of £16 allegedly for postage on top of the £114 NHS charge for a pair of lenses. Not a happy bunny :x

Re: Cost of Lenses

Posted: Wed 15 Nov 2017 11:18 pm
by Jolly Roger
You should not pay more than £57 per lens on NHS and they should be fitting the lenses and making sure they are the correct prescription and fit alright. Sending them out in the post without checking the fit/correct prescription is negligent.

Also when they order the lenses ask them to incorporate some sort of ID which differentiates which is for the right and left eye. Either a dot on one of lenses or one with a blue tint of the edge for left (bLue) and grey (gRey) for left.

Some past informative threads on this subject.

http://www.keratoconus-group.org.uk/for ... php?t=1267

http://www.keratoconus-group.org.uk/for ... php?t=5785

http://www.keratoconus-group.org.uk/for ... php?t=5616

Re: Cost of Lenses

Posted: Wed 15 Nov 2017 11:18 pm
by Jolly Roger

Re: Cost of Lenses

Posted: Thu 16 Nov 2017 5:30 pm
by NightOwl
Thank you Jolly Roger. I will read through those links.

I’m not sure how I can argue against paying their inflated charge. Do not want to ruffle feathers by questioning it and have them sabotage me with an incorrect prescription.... :(

Re: Cost of Lenses

Posted: Sat 18 Nov 2017 2:33 pm
by Mischa7199
Hi have been having lenses from the hospital for over 25yrs now and the most recent were in fact approx 146 I didnt know there was a cap so will have to check on this
thank you spooo much
Julia

Re: Cost of Lenses

Posted: Sat 18 Nov 2017 5:27 pm
by Lia Williams
Details of NHS Optical Vouchers can be found here:

https://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/Healthcos ... alues.aspx

The confusing thing is that Vouchers A to I are vouchers which are given to people who meet certain criteria:

https://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/Healthcos ... x#criteria

whereas Voucher J is the charge (per lens) to the patient for contact lenses prescribed for or on behalf of the NHS.

Lia

Re: Cost of Lenses

Posted: Sun 19 Nov 2017 3:35 pm
by Lia Williams
Jolly Roger wrote:You have a 12 month period trial period, i.e if the lenses are not wearable in that period any other lenses that are prescribed are FOC.


I believe that there exceptions to this. If one were to be prescribed daily disposable lenses (unlikely with KC but possible for other medically needed contact lenses) then the charge of £57 (per eye) would be for six months' supply of the lenses. Similarly if the lens was only designed to last six months then one would be charged again for the replacements after six months.

Lia

Re: Cost of Lenses

Posted: Mon 20 Nov 2017 12:06 pm
by Anne Klepacz
Just to add that not all hospital eye clinics have a contact lens department. Those hospitals usually then contract out the supply of contact lenses to a specified optometrist in the area giving the patient what's known as a HESp voucher. While the £57 per lens charge still applies with this voucher, from what I've heard from our members, opticians under the 'contracted out' scheme do tend to make some additional charges, and these seem to vary from practice to practice.