Topic: lunettes and showing up my own ignorance?

[mint]

Well, so much for having lived years in France....obviously still no idea of how remboursements for glasses work[+o(]

So, having done my "research" by talking to a few French friends, I got the idea that you could now have your glasses including "verres progressives" free.

So, appointments made, we turned up at the glasses shop, only to be told that that shop does not work within the reseau for Itelis ( our mutuelle is with this Itelis).  After establishing that we would not be getting a reprise, I said we didn't want their service but would they recommend a shop that does work with Itelis?  To be fair to the shop assistant, she telephoned another shop in town (with the same name as her shop, just another branch) and made us RVs for this afternoon.

All this has made me thoroughly confused.  So, can someone explain to me briefly how the remboursements work and what they have had to pay (rough sum if you don't wish to say) for their glasses with varifocals?

All info more than gratefully received...thank you.

[NormanH]

Not a very useful answer perhaps but my last pair of reading glasses cost 650€ of which about 66 cents was paid by the sécu and 150 by my mutuelle...and I only use them for very small print.

[fittersmate]

Hi mint - if you look at

https://www.ameli.fr/morbihan/assure/remboursements/rembourse/optique-audition/lunettes-lentilles

Swap the "morbihan" in the link for your department.

[mint]

Fittersmate, thank you very much; that was super helpful and I feel reasonably informed and competent to discuss our requirements with the opticien later this afternoon.

Norman, you don't say whether you had those glasses before or after the "new" remboursements?

Perhaps you opted for the gold-plated frames?[:D][:D][:D]  Hmm....I bet you look mega "cool" in your glasses?

[suein56]

mint wrote the following post at 18 May 2021 12:52:

Well, so much for having lived years in France....obviously still no idea of how remboursements for glasses work!

I have just been this morning for a quote .. not for the 'free' specs .. but at my local opticians using our Groupama mutuelle subsidy ..

Cost of Essilor varifocal, photochromic, thinned lenses in a good frame should have been 784€ for the 2 lenses plus 244€ for the frame .. after deductions I will actually owe 316€.

So I am quite happy.

[NormanH]

I was talking about last November mint.

Similar to me then Sue except that your Mutuelle paid more, which is not surprising as I opted for the lowest category of cover for specs as I only have a new pair every 10 years or so (up to now)

What our esperience does seem to show is that if you go for anything more than very basic lenses and frames then they are not 'free'..

I use mine for tiny writing but also if my eyes are feeling tired after too long looking at the screen, so I took lenses which  have blue light filter, but honestly I  am not impressed.

[mint]

Firstly fittersmate, I am so glad I genned up on this from your link before the opticien's.  And indeed I wish to thank you again. 

We felt it was a very good service, the woman tested our eyes, so it was in effect a check on the ordonnance, a second opinion if you like.  I asked to see the 100% sante frames after she led me to another part of the shop to choose frames.  In fact, I thought there was a very good range of "free" frames and I was very quickly able to choose a pair and she worked it all out and told me it was all prise en charge.

Same procedure with OH and nothing to pay for him either.  That surprised me somewhat because I thought that, as he needed his frames large, there might not be a suitable "free" frame for him.  According to the link that fm gave me, these frames are of good quality as are the lenses.  I would have paid whatever necessary for OH but, for myself, I am not likely to need my glasses much as the cataract operations have done wonders for my sight and I now only need glasses for reading.

We thought we'd try them and if we were dissatisfied, we would just go and pay for another pair.

Sue, we have both had Esilor before; I was very pleased with mine but OH never got on with his despite taking them back about 3 times.  If memory serves, we paid nearly 600 euros each, but that would have been about 4 years ago.  Anyway FOC sounds pretty good to me and I was more [:)]han thrilled.

Hope my experience is helpful to others.  It's always good to hear a range of people's experiences; nothing like knowing what to expect to put one at an advantage.

[suein56]

mint wrote the following post at 18 May 2021 18:02:

I asked to see the 100% sante frames after she led me to another part of the shop to choose frames. In fact, I thought there was a very good range of "free" frames and I was very quickly able to choose a pair and she worked it all out and told me it was all prise en charge.

Excellent news .. well done you.

As I am tiny .. child-size plus a bit .. it is v awkward to find frames which suit my wee face but will accommodate the 3 layers of vari-focals I need .. so I am willing to pay for good lenses in an adjusted-to-fit frame.

[fittersmate]

mint - Glad the link helped. Please update us once you get your glasses. Hopefully they will be ok but, if not, it was worth trying the FOC ones first.

[Lehaut]

Our son's glasses arrived, international signed for from the UK Glasses2you, yesterday. One pair designer thin lens prescription sunglasses, one pair designer thin lens prescription glasses. He had his eye checked by ophtalmologiste here in Nantes. Sent that prescription off to G2Y. Cost in total €190 paid on PayPal. He could not be bothered with the FOC nor the Lunettes pour 10€ "scams" we have here.

My wife ordered a pair of bi focal lenses 2 years ago from G2Y, £66.63. She could not get on with them and sent them back and they re-lensed them for a minimum fee.

Our local paper asked for contributions from subscribers to see if anyone had used on line opticians during Covid. I submitted this story yesterday, waiting to see if they publish it!!

[mint]

Lehaut, I have returned to this thread and am now sitting up and paying attention to your post!

First of all, allow me to describe my problem and I am hoping that someone will have the answer.

My glasses were absolutely fine, all the better for having been completely free (100% prise en charge)[:D]

OH had had problems with his, however.

Went back to the shop and the woman recommended us to go to someone who could check his prescription and ascertain if it was right for him.  She gave us the address and phone number of the person to see.  So we did that and went back to the shop and OH explained that everything was blurred and wasn't right.  Then she said he needed to go to someone (I have found out that she meant an optometrist) who would give him re-education exercises, that his brain was not adapting to the new glasses.

At that point, I contacted his ophthalmologue whose secretary put us through to the hospital's own optometrist.  Went yesterday and OH had a long and detailed test of his eyes and the optometrist explained that his ordonnance was in fact too strong but her findings agreed closely with the ordonnance provided by the first person we saw, the one recommended by the shop.

So, back we went to the shop today.  The woman who normally deals with us was not there and her colleague, after consultation of her computer told us that the lenses could indeed be changed but that the cost would be 310 euros. 

Now all I want to know is whether it is correct that we would have to pay as the ordonnance was not correct?  What are the rules (conventions) when this sort of thing happens?

It is likely that I will contact the ophthalmo's cabinet again just to be sure whether we do need to pay.  If we do, then that's it of course.  We will pay up or try Lehaut's way.  But I would like to know whether the shop has dealt with us correctly?

[mint]

Lehaut, I have pm'ed you

[Lehaut]

Replied, from a warm but overcast Propriano, Corsica.

[mint]

Wow, to be in Corsica....nevermind it being overcast, over here where I am it's overcast AND raining!

Thanks a lot for the reply; greatly appreciated.

Wishing you and Mrs Lehaut a lovely rest of your stay in Corsica[:)]

[Lehaut]

Thank you. Spent a glorious week on the motor bike going round the mountains and coast roads. Then snorkelling in 25'c waters. Now in Carcassonne, gave Beziers and Normanh a wave as we shot past. Think both out vehicles share a similar colour.

[mint]

No doubt your vehicle goes a lot faster than Norman's but I suppose Norman's is a sans permis and therefore would not go as fast?[:D]

[NormanH]

Well it certainly wasn't a heat wave!