Eye Care

<split from Costco eyeglasses thread>

@September 2014, cost of eye exam at Costco is quoted at $130 to $155 for fitting with contact lenses. This is no longer cheap. When it was $70 or so, was OK. Remember, these people are optometrists, not ophthalmologists, but are charging prices like eye doctors, when they are technicians.

Pat,

I moved your post as I thought it deserved its own discussion, and the other thread is long enough as it is.

First and most importantly, regarding the cost of a contact lens exam at Costco - the prices vary quite a bit throughout the country. By me, the price is no longer the $79 I had quoted a year and a half ago, but is $85 I believe I saw when I last checked. I'll call soon and verify the price to make sure it is accurate in this post. I'm not sure if the price went up significantly in your area, or if it has always been higher. I suspect that the price for eye exams and contact lens exams is higher in your area, which is why the price is higher at the Costco near you. I'm curious what the going rate is for eye exams and contact lens exams in your area from other providers?

Second, regarding optometrists and ophthalmologists - I wrote a post on the topic of the differences between optometrists, ophthalmologists, and opticians about 4 years ago. I would not consider an optometrist to be a "technician". I might accept that an optician is more of a technician, with far less training requirements. But optometrists do go to 4 years of graduate school - AFTER college in order to be licensed. An OD degree (what optometrists have) is considered a Doctor of Optometry. Unless you have some serious eye problems, going to an ophthalmologist would be overkill. Optometrists are the people who specialize in fitting glasses and contacts, and that is who I go to see for my eye exams, even when I went to a private practitioner.

Perhaps you were thinking that opticians are the ones who do the eye exams? They have very little education requirements in order to do their job. Opticians can not write prescriptions, but they basically fit and adjust glasses.

I'll update this post once I have the current contact lens exam price from my local Costco.

I checked with my local Costco Optical today. The eye doctor (optometrist) is technically separate from Costco, even though their office is inside the Costco building. The regular optical department had to transfer me to the eye doctor's receptionist, as they weren't positive of the pricing.

The price is $85 for a basic contact lens exam, and this includes a prescription for eyeglasses too. The basic contact lens exam would be for single vision standard contacts.

The price goes up to $100 if you an astigmatism.

And the highest price exam is $110 and that is for a bifocal contact lens exam.

There is also an extra $20 for pupil dilation, if they do that.