Does Health Insurance Cover Eye Therapy?

by | Last updated on January 24, 2024

, , , ,

Is Vision Therapy Covered by my Insurance?

In many cases, yes

. Many major insurance companies (like BlueCross BlueShield, United, Aetna, etc.) allow coverage for vision therapy services.

How is vision therapy billed?

Most therapy providers use

code numbers 99203, 99204, and 92015

to bill for an initial vision exam of between 1 – 2 hours. For assessing a patient’s visual information processing, and a 2-hour appointment, commonly used CPT codes may include 96111, 96116, or 92060.

How long is vision therapy?

How long does vision therapy take? There is no magic length of treatment because every case is different. However, the average length of a vision therapy program is

4-6 months of two 60-minute sessions a week

.

What happens during vision therapy?

An optometric vision therapy program consists of

supervised in-office and at home reinforcement exercises performed over weeks to months

. In addition to exercises, lenses (“training glasses”), prisms, filters, patches, electronic targets, or balance boards may be used.

Is vision therapy experimental?


Aetna considers vision therapy experimental and investigational for all other indications

(e.g., anisometropic amblyopia, concussion, intermittent exotropia, and traumatic brain injury).

What is a sensorimotor eye exam?

Sensorimotor is

an examination of the basic eye motor component of an optometric or ophthalmic exam and detects, assesses, monitors, and/or manages strabismus and oculomotor conditions

. CPT lists a quantitative sensorimotor exam as a required element of a comprehensive eye exam.

Can 92014 and 92060 be billed together?

Office calls (99201-99215, 92002-92014) and sensorimotor exams (92060) are

not eligible for separate billing from the providers of the visual therapy during treatment unless a medical examination is clinically indicated for other reasons

. Use CPT codes or HCPCS level II code to bill your services.

What is procedure code 97110?

CPT® code 97110:

Therapy procedure using exercise to develop strength, endurance, range of motion and flexibility, each 15 minutes

.

Is vision therapy worth the money?

Current research in the treatment of convergence insufficiency has shown that

computer-based vision therapy is NOT effective

. In fact, it was less effective than the control placebo (fake) therapy. Computer-based vision therapy has the potential to embed poor visual habits.

Is vision therapy successful?

Vision therapy is

remarkably successful in improving binocular vision skills

. Through a series of progressive therapeutic procedures (eye exercises), patients develop or recover normal visual skills.

Can adults benefit from vision therapy?


Vision therapy is often effective for adults

because they are motivated to improve their visual abilities. When people have trouble using both eyes together or can’t focus for great lengths of time, they do not simply grow out of these problems. Children with visual problems often become adults with visual problems.

Is vision therapy quackery?

Definition and conceptual basis. Vision therapy is based on the proposition that many learning disabilities in children are based on vision problems, and that these can be cured by performing eye exercises.

Vision therapy lacks sound evidence, has been characterized as a pseudoscience and its practice as quackery

.

Who can benefit from vision therapy?

  • Learning-Related Vision Problems. …
  • Poor Binocular Vision (eye-teaming) or Accommodation (eye-focusing) …
  • Strabismus (eye turns) and Amblyopia (lazy eye) …
  • Stress-Induced Visual Difficulties. …
  • Visual Rehabilitation for Special Populations/Brain Injury. …
  • Sports Vision Enhancement.

How do I know if I need vision therapy?


Skipping of words or lines with reading

. Rubs eyes or closes one eye with reading or near work. Holds material close or tilts head or paper. Eyestrain or headaches with school work.

What is eye therapy called?


Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR)

is a fairly new, nontraditional type of psychotherapy. It’s growing in popularity, particularly for treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Is Behavioural optometry evidence based?

You will no doubt hear from time to time that

Behavioural Optometry is not evidence based medicine

. The facts are that is it simply not true. There is extensive evidence for the scientific basis of our testing and treatment methods in the areas of vision function and visual perceptual development.

Does vision therapy help concussion?

Fortunately, many visual problems after concussion will resolve within 3-4 weeks or less. Vision therapy, also referred to as neuro-optometric rehabilitation,

can be very effective in cases where visual symptoms persist

, even when other symptoms such as dizziness or poor balance have resolved.

How do you do a 4 dot test worth?

With both eyes open, a patient with normal binocular vision will see four lights. If the patient either closes or suppresses an eye they will see either two or three lights. If the patient does not fuse the images of the two eyes and sees double (diplopia), they will see five lights.

What is procedure code 92083?

CPT code 92083:

Visual field ex- amination, unilateral or bilateral, with interpretation and report; extended examination

(e.g., Goldmann visual fields with at least 3 isopters plotted and static determination within the central 30 degrees, or quantitative, automated threshold perimetry, Octopus program G-1, 32, or 42, …

Is strabismus a disease?

Strabismus is

a disorder

in which both eyes do not line up in the same direction. Therefore, they do not look at the same object at the same time. The most common form of strabismus is known as “crossed eyes.”

How do you code Ophthalmology?

Ophthalmology Services and Procedures CPT

®

Code range

92002- 92499

. The Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) code range for Ophthalmology Services and Procedures 92002-92499 is a medical code set maintained by the American Medical Association.

Does 92014 need a modifier?


Modifier 25 may be appended only to Evaluation and Management (E&M) codes within the range of 92002 – 92014 and 99201 – 99499

. To appropriately append modifier 25 to an E&M code, the provided service must meet the definition of “significant, separately identifiable E&M service” as defined by CPT.

What is the code range for ophthalmology e m?

The appropriate E/M code will be

99213

; the eye code is 92014.

How Much Does Medicare pay for 97110?

For example, payment for therapeutic exercise (CPT code 97110) will drop by an average of 3.3%, from $31.40 in 2020 to

$30.36

this year, with manual therapy (97140) seeing a similar percentage decrease, from $28.87 in 2020 to $27.91 in 2021.

Can chiropractors Bill 97110?


The 97110 CPT code can be used for therapeutic exercises and include physical therapy, occupational therapy and chiropractic services

. CPT 97110 and CPT 97140 can billed on the same day.

Is CPT 97110 covered by Medicare?

Under Medicare,

time spent in documentation of services (medical record production) is part of the coverage of the respective CPT code

. CPT codes 97110, 97112, 97113, 97116, and 97530 describe several different types of therapeutic interventions.

James Park
Author
James Park
Dr. James Park is a medical doctor and health expert with a focus on disease prevention and wellness. He has written several publications on nutrition and fitness, and has been featured in various health magazines. Dr. Park's evidence-based approach to health will help you make informed decisions about your well-being.