Your Office Visit

Welcome to our practice.

Thanks for choosing our office for your eye care. We are ophthalmologists—EyeMDs. Ophthalmologists are medical doctors who specialize in the medical, laser and surgical treatment of eye problems. We also prescribe and fit eyeglasses, but we have chosen not to prescribe, fit or sell contact lenses. Our optical shop offers eyeglass frames across a broad price range, as well as all of the latest eyeglass lens technologies.

We appreciate having you as a patient, and we hope to make our professional relationship a pleasant one. We want to give you some information about us and answer a variety of frequently-asked questions. Please feel free to contact us if you have any additional questions about our practice.

Your appointment

During your initial appointment and subsequent comprehensive eye examinations, we will most likely dilate your pupils with eyedrops. This allows us to view the structures inside your eyeball. Expect to spend as long as 2 to 2 1/2 hours at our office, as the comprehensive eye examination consists of several parts, and the dilating drops take awhile to work.

Afterwards, your vision may be somewhat blurry, and you will be more sensitive to bright light. We recommend that you bring sunglasses, and you may wish to bring someone to drive you home. Be cautious about undertaking hazardous tasks while the pupils are dilated. The dilating drops may take 4 to 6 hours to wear off, sometimes longer.

We see patients on a scheduled basis, but emergency patients often must be added to the schedule. While we make every effort to run on-time, we may be delayed due to emergencies or patients whose care requires extra time. If you are unable to wait, we can reschedule your appointment. We hope you will consider that someday you may be the one who needs emergency care, or more time to discuss your situation.

Please complete your patient information form before arriving at our office, so that your appointment is not delayed for completion of paperwork.

Please bring the following things with you to each appointment:

Insurance cards
Eyeglasses
Bottles of eye drops you are taking·
List of medications you are taking
Completed paperwork
A parent or guardian if you are a minor

If you need to make a cell phone call while at our office, we’d appreciate your being considerate of other patients and staff, and don’t use your speaker.

Canceling your appointment

If you are unable to keep your appointment or are going to be late, please let us know as soon as possible. If you fail to arrive for your appointment, or cancel the same day, we may charge a fee.

Optical shop

Our optical shop offers eyeglass frames across a broad price range, including some high-fashion frames not typically available in mid-Michigan. We can provide you the latest in lens technologies. Our optician is available to fit eyeglasses Monday – Friday, 8:30 – 11:30 am and 1:30 – 4:30 pm. There may be times when the optician is unavailable, so please call before coming in.

Special services we provide

Nd:YAG Laser in office:

Used to treat glaucoma, as well as secondary membrane following cataract surgery.

Optical Coherence Tomography in office:

Advanced laser scan of the optic nerve and retina, used to diagnose and manage glaucoma and various retinal problems.

Visual Field Machine in office:

Maps the peripheral vision, used to monitor glaucoma and investigate optic nerve problems.

Insurance and Billing

We participate with many medical insurance plans, including Medicare, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, some Medicaid plans, Priority Health, Humana, HAP, Dow Chemical, and ConnectCare. When we “participate,” we agree to accept the plan’s fee schedule as payment in full for covered services, although you will often have to pay a copayment or deductible amount. (Most medical insurance won’t pay for the refraction charge, the part of the examination when we test you for eyeglasses, which is usually necessary in order for us to know your best possible vision.)

Refraction charges and copayments (if we know what the copayment will be), are due at the time of service, so please bring a form of payment (cash, check, Visa, Mastercard, or Discover). However, sometimes we must wait to see what your insurance plan pays before we know what you will owe. If so, we’ll bill you later.

If we don’t participate with your insurance plan, we will ask for payment in full from you at the time of service. We’ll give you an extra copy of the statement for you to include when you submit a claim to your insurance company. We will bill most medical insurance plans on your behalf, as a courtesy to you.

Medical insurance covers you for medical eye problems, just as it pays for medical problems of other body systems—your heart, for example. However, many medical insurance plans do not cover office visits that are solely for the purpose of being checked for glasses, or “routine” or preventive office visits when you don’t have a medical symptom. Many people are also covered by vision insurance, which pays for being tested for glasses and for the eyeglasses themselves.

We realize that the medical insurance system is complex and confusing. If you believe that we’ve made a billing error, we’d very much appreciate your discussing it with us so that we may resolve the situation. If something doesn’t make sense to you, please ask to speak to our insurance expert.