It is an irony of America”™s health care system that if you have enough money, your health insurance coverage likely includes eye exams and glasses and if you don”™t have any money, Medicaid will mostly pay for such needs. But if you are a person who falls in the middle, a worker making a decent salary with decent insurance, you may not be able to afford eye exams and glasses, which are not covered under many health insurance policies.
But one optician is trying to help those people see better. Gene Gold, who owns the Pearl Vision Center franchise in Brewster has teamed up with the local Lions Club and the Putnam County Department of Social Services to provide cost-free eye exams to patients in need. And if an exam reveals a need for glasses, he will fashion a set of lenses as well and provide them, all for $50, a fee paid for by the Lions Club.
“It”™s basically working pro-bono for the patient who really needs the services,” Gold said. “I”™ve always felt as a business person in the community you can”™t just keep taking all the time, you need to give something back.”
The 3-month-old program has provided services to about a dozen patients, he said, all of whom are prescreened for need by DSS and fall just above the Medicaid income cut off, and thus, are deemed too prosperous for official assistance with eye care. “At that point I get a call from DSS and I”™ll set up an appointment,” Gold said.
“We do a very thorough job with the eye exam,” Gold said, noting that he has an experienced staff that includes James Carroll, an optometrist, who oversees exams that include visual acuity, and screening for glaucoma and other vision problems.
The store also accepts used glasses and refurbishes them for needy people overseas.
“Health insurance doesn”™t typically cover eye care as diligently as other health concerns, so we know a lot of people tend to go without getting their eyes checked on a regular basis,” said James Sanok, president of the Brewster Lions Club. “So we are trying to put it out there that eye care is very important, people need eye care and we will try to accommodate what they need.”
