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The American Optometric Association encourages parents to include a trip to the optometrist in the list of well-baby check-ups. Assessments at six to twelve months of age can determine healthy development of vision. Early detection of eye conditions is the best way to ensure your child has healthy vision for successful development—now and in the future.
InfantSEE™ is a public health program designed to ensure that eye and vision care becomes an integral part of infant wellness care to improve a child's quality of life. Under this program, which will be available in summer 2005, our member optometrists will provide a comprehensive infant eye assessment within the first year of life as a no cost public health service.
For more information or to find an InfantSEE provider, go to www.infantsee.org
VISION USA Open year-round
More than 40 million low-income, working people in the United States cannot afford the cost of routine eye care or the health insurance that covers it. As income earners, they don't qualify for government aid and private health-care assistance.
Now a year-round program, VISION USA can help these people by providing basic eye health and vision care services free of charge to the many uninsured low-income people and their families who have no other means of obtaining care.
VISION USA, started nationwide in 1991, is a program developed by doctors of optometry who are members of the American Optometric Association. Approximately 340,000 low income working Americans have benefited from free eye exams through VISION USA.
Eligibility
The program is open to children and adults of all ages who qualify. Here are the general eligibility requirements, although they may vary by state. To receive free services, individuals must:
1. Have a job or live in a household where there is one working member;
2. Have no vision insurance (this may include Medicare/Medicaid);
3. Have income below an established level based on household size; and
4. Not have had an eye exam within 2 years.
If an individual or family is eligible, they will be matched with a volunteer doctor of optometry who will provide a comprehensive eye exam at no charge. The doctors are donating their services and may be limited in some areas. Eyewear may also be provided at no cost or for a small fee/donation in some states.
How To Get Care
You may complete an on-line application by clicking here.
OR
For a mail-in application:
VISION USA Patient Application form – English
* Word document format
VISION USA Patient Application form – Spanish
* Word document format
Applications are also available by writing to VISION USA,
243 North Lindbergh Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63141
OR
We also take applications by phone. Call us at 1-800/766-4466, 7 a.m.-9 p.m., CST, Monday through Friday to apply.
For additional information contact:
VISION USA
243 North Lindbergh Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63141
Fax: 314/991-4101
Email:
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Thanks to the following labs for participating in Vision USA:
- Dunlaw Optical
- Duffens Optical
- Team Effort Optical
- Wendal Walters Optical, Inc.
- Future Optics
- Rainbow Optical
- Classen Wholesale Optical
- Specialty Optical Services/SOS
- RX Optical
- Benedict Optical
Special thanks to Clearvision Optical for donating frames to doctors for the program.
Sight for Students is a VSP charity that provides free vision exams and glasses to low-income, uninsured children. The program operates nationally through a network of community partners who identify children in need and VSP network doctors who provide the eyecare services.
More than 50,000 children each year receive a free comprehensive exam and corrective lenses if needed through Sight for Students. These are children who would otherwise not receive the eyecare and eyewear they need to do their best work in school and perform their best at play.
VSP founded Sight for Students in 1997 and was one of the original commitment-makers to America's Promise, which strives to bring together organizations dedicated to helping our nation's youth.
How to Qualify
There are five basic qualifications your child must meet in order to receive a Sight for Students gift certificate.
- Family income is no more than 200% of federal poverty level (see chart below).
- Child is not enrolled in Medicaid or other vision insurance.
- Child is 18 years old or younger and has not graduated from high school.
- Child or parent is a U.S. citizen or legal immigrant with a social security number.
- Child has not used the Sight for Students program during the past 12 months.
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