This is the situation:
A friend of mine has insurance that covers one eye examination per year. Today he went to the ophthalmologist and did need a new eyeglass prescription. This ophthalmologist does not make glasses. When he went to pay his $40 copay and asked for a written prescription to take away to an place to get the eyeglasses, the office person charged him an additional $35 for the written prescription. He asked why, and she said something like, “Because the insurance doesn’t cover that.” Cover what?
Is this common? I’ve worn glasses since I was a kid and never heard of this or encountered it when I started getting my own glasses for myself in 1964. I’ve also never had insurance that covers eye exams/glasses (and most of the time didn’t have any insurance at all).
What would be the rationale for this extra charge? If a person needs glasses and that doc’s office doesn’t make the glasses, the patient is going to need to take a prescription somewhere to get the glasses, right? Seems like charging $35 to copy some numbers from the chart to a prescription pad is rather high. Seems to me that ANY charge for that is rather high.