Eye Glasses
Eyeglasses are custom order prescription medical devices and are, therefore, non-refundable. Please be sure to review your order carefully with our Optician before signing the order form and making your payment.
Warranted frames have a one year one time replacement or repair against DEFECTS in the frame or normal wear and tear and is covered by the manufacturer, at their discretion. Not all frames are warranted, be sure to ask if you have any concerns.
Non-warranted frames are sold as is, however, we will make every attempt to repair or replace the frame if necessary due to frame defect one time during the first ninety days after receipt of your completed glasses.
On occasion, a patient may need to change frames after an order has been placed. If this should occur, a re-stocking fee will apply. There are limitations and there may be additional charges, please discuss this with the Optician.
If you feel that the prescription is not correct, please feel free to schedule a time to come in and discuss your problem with our Optician and the Doctor. If it is necessary, we will re-examine you at no charge within the first forty-five days of receipt of your glasses. A charge of $49 may be applied if we re-check your prescription at a later date.
If you are unable to adapt to your progressive lenses within the first forty-five days, we can discuss options and remake the lenses for you. There may be additional fees associated with this process.
Our Optician will be happy to adjust your eyeglass frame at any time and at no additional charge. Frames or Sunglasses not purchased from us can also be adjusted for you, but there may be a nominal fee. Please feel free to bring them in and discuss it with our Optician.
Although we always exercise the greatest of care, we are not responsible for the patient's own frame should it break while we are adjusting, repairing or reusing it for a new prescription. This includes new frames purchased elsewhere and brought to us and non-prescription sunglasses.
Please remember - ALL EYEGLASSES ARE CUSTOM MADE. SORRY, NO REFUNDS.
INSURANCE PATIENTS
Although we do everything we can to assist our patients in determining their insurance benefits, it is the responsibility of the patient to know what insurance plan or plans they have at the time of the exam and materials order. If an insurance plan is discovered after the order has been placed, we will do everything possible to get an authorization and apply the insurance to your order. There may be a fee associated with this extra service. Please be sure to discuss this with the Optician or Contact Lens Technician.
We wish to provide our patients with the best possible service at all times and our warranties reflect the industry standards. Your individual insurance plan may have some variation on our standard warranties and we must follow their instructions regarding any frame or lens exchanges or warranties.
Contact Lenses
Contact lens prescriptions are valid for one year from the date of the initial exam. Please be sure to let us know if you wish to continue to wear contact lenses at the time you come in for your annual exam.
There is an additional fee for the Evaluation and Fitting for Contact Lens Wear. This fee varies depending upon the type of contact lenses you will need and is collected at the time of your fitting.
Examination, Contact Lens Fitting and Consultation fees are not refundable. If you should decide to discontinue the fitting process for any reason, the fees are not refundable.
If you do not have your contact lens fitting and evaluation done at the time of your annual exam, you must return for the contact lens fitting and evaluation within 90 days to avoid paying for an office visit in addition to the contact lens fees.
We will provide you with trial contact lenses during the fitting and evaluation period and see you for the follow up visits as part of your initial contact lens fitting fee. This does not include special order contacts, for which there will be a charge based upon the contacts to be ordered.
Boxes of contact lenses may be eligible for return or exchange. They must be unmarked and unopened to be considered. Please check with the Contact Lens Technician if you have lenses you wish to return.
If a change in prescription should occur, and you have opened boxes of contact lenses, we will make every attempt to replace the old prescription with lenses in the new prescription. If possible, we will replace boxes of contacts purchased during the prescription year. We cannot replace individual contacts or boxes from the previous contact lens prescription year.
Contact lenses generally arrive within 3 to 5 days after ordered, however this may not hold true for specialty contacts which include astigmatism correction lenses and some multifocal lenses.
Prescriptions are generally faxed, mailed or dispensed at the office at the time the prescription is finalized. Contact lens prescriptions expire one year from the date of the exam.
You are entitled to receive enough contact lenses to provide you with the number needed to finish off the year. As an example, if your prescription expires in 82 days, we would authorize the purchase of a 90 day supply of contacts.
WE CAN MAIL YOUR CONTACTS - No charge for 1 year supply, shipping fees apply for any other quantities.
NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES (HIPPA)
Dr. Howard Budner OD & MIchael Morshedi O.D.
THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION. PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY.
We respect our legal obligation to keep health information that identifies you private. We are obligated by law to give you notice of our privacy practices. This Notice describes how we protect your health information and what rights you have regarding it.
TREATMENT, PAYMENT, AND HEALTH CARE OPERATIONS
The most common reason why we use or disclose your health information is for treatment, payment, or health care operations. Examples of how we use or disclose information for treatment purposes are: setting up an appointment for you; testing or examining your eyes; prescribing glasses, contact lenses, or eye medications and faxing them to be filled; showing you low vision aids; referring you to another doctor or clinic for eye care of low vision aids or services; or getting copies of your health information from another professional that you may have seen before us. Examples of how we use or disclose your health information for payment purposes are: asking you about your health or vision care plans, or other sources of payment; preparing and sending bills or claims; and collecting unpaid amounts (either ourselves or through a collection agency or attorney). "Health care operations" mean those administrative and managerial functions that we have to do in order to run our office. Examples of how we use or disclose your health information for health care operations are: financial or billing audits; internal quality assurance; personnel decisions; participation in managed care plans; defense of legal matters; business planning; and outside storage of our records.
We routinely use your health information inside our office for these purposes without any special permission. If we need to disclose your health information outside of our office for these reasons, we usually will not ask you for special written permission.
USES AND DISCLOSURES FOR OTHER REASONS WITHOUT PERMISSION
In some limited situations, the law allows or requires us to use or disclose your health information without your permission. Not all of these situations will apply to us; some may never come up at our office at all. Such uses or disclosures are: when a state or federal law mandates that certain health information be reported for a specific purpose, for public health purposes, such as contagious disease reporting, investigation or surveillance; and notices to and from the federal Food and Drug Administration regarding drugs or medical devices, uses or disclosures for health related research, disclosures of de-identified information, disclosures to governmental authorities about victims of suspected abuse, neglect or domestic violence, uses and disclosures for health oversight activities, such as for the licensing of doctors; for audits by Medicare or Medicaid; or for investigation of possible violations of health care laws, disclosures for judicial and administrative proceedings, such as in response to subpoenas or orders of courts or administrative agencies, disclosures for law enforcement purposes, such as to provide information about someone who is or is suspected to be a victim of crime; to provide information about a crime at our office; or to report a crime that happened somewhere else, disclosures relating to worker's compensation programs, disclosures of a "limited data set" for research, public health, or health care operations, incidental disclosures that are an unavoidable by-product of permitted uses or disclosures or disclosures to "business associates" who perform health care operations for us and who commit to respect the privacy of your health information. Unless you object, we will also share relevant information about your care with your family or friends who are helping you with your eye care.
APPOINTMENT REMINDERS
We may call or write to remind you of scheduled appointments or that it is time to make a routine appointment. We may also call or write to notify you of other treatments or services available at our office that might help you. Unless you tell us otherwise, we will mail you an appointment reminder on a post card, and/or leave you a reminder message on your answering machine or with someone who answers your phone if you are not home.
OTHER USES AND DISCLOSURES
We will not make any other uses or disclosures of your health information unless you sign a written "authorization form" with content mandated by federal law. We may initiate the authorization process if the use or disclosure is your idea or you may initiate the process for us to send your information to someone else. Typically, in this situation you will give us a properly completed authorization form, or you can use one of ours.
If we initiate the process and ask you to sign an authorization form, you do not have to sign it. If you do not sign the authorization, we cannot make the use or disclosure. If you do sign on, you may revoke it at any time unless we have already acted in reliance upon it. Revocations must be in writing to Dr. Howard Budner at our office.
YOUR RIGHTS REGARDING YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION
The law gives you many rights regarding your health information. You can:
. ask us to restrict our uses and disclosures for purposes of treatment (except emergency treatment), payment or health care operations. We do not have to agree to do this, but if we agree, we must honor the restrictions that you want. To ask for a restriction, send a written request to Dr. Howard Budner at our office.
. ask us to communicate with you in a confidential way, such as by phoning you at work rather than at home. We will accommodate these requests if they are reasonable, and if you pay us for any extra cost involved. If you want to ask for confidential communications, send a written request to Dr. Howard Budner at our office.
. ask to see or to get photocopies of your health information. By law, there are a few limited situations in which we can refuse to permit access or copying. However, for the most part, you will be able to review or have a copy of your health information within 15 days of asking us (or sixty days if the information is stored off-site). You may have to pay for photocopies in advance. If we deny your request, we will send you a written explanation, and instructions about how to get an impartial review of our denial if one is legally available. By law, we can have on 30-day extension of the time for us to give you access or photocopies if we send you a written notice of the extension. If you want to review or get photocopies of your health information, send a written request to Dr. Howard Budner at our office.
. ask us to amend your health information if you think that it is incorrect or incomplete. If we agree, we will amend the information within 60 days from when you ask us. We will send the corrected information to persons who we know got the wrong information, and others that you specify. If we do not agree, you can write a statement of your position, and we will include it with your health information along with any rebuttal statement that we may write. Once your statement of position and /or rebuttal is included in your health information, we will send it along whenever we make a permitted disclosure of your health information. By law, we can have one 30-day extension of time to consider a request for amendment if we notify you in writing of the extension. If you want to ask us to amend your health information, send a written request, including your reasons for the amendment, to Dr. Howard Budner at our office.
. Get a list of the disclosures that we have made of your health information within the past six years (or a shorter period if you want). By law, the list will not include: disclosures for purposes of treatment, payment or health care operations; disclosures with your authorization; incidental disclosures; disclosures required by law; and some other limited disclosures. You are entitled to one such list per year without charge. If you want more frequent lists, you will have to pay for them in advance. We will usually respond to your request within 60 days of receiving it, but by law we can have a 30-day extension of time if we notify you of the extension in writing. If you want a list or additional paper copies of this Notice of Privacy Practices, send a written request to Dr. Howard Budner in our office.
OUR NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES
By law, we must abide by the terms of this Notice of Privacy Practice (NPP) until we revise it. We reserve the right to change this notice at any time as allowed by law. If we change the NPP, the new privacy practices will apply to your health information that we already have as well as to such information that we may generate in the future. If we change our NPP, we will post the new notice in our office, make copies available and post it on our Web site.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
If you think that we have not properly respected the privacy of your health information, you are free to complain to us or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights. We will not retaliate against you if you make a complaint. If you prefer to complain directly to us, please send a written complaint to the attention of Dr. Howard Budner at our office. If you prefer to discuss your complaint in person or by phone, of if you want more information about your privacy practices please contact us.