Human Resources: Flex 2002 News: Coverage Eliminated for Corrective Eye Surgery

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Flex 2002 News: Coverage Eliminated for Corrective Eye Surgery

It’s important for the Merck Medical Plan to provide coverage for many medically necessary treatments and services. It’s also critical—for clinical, competitive and cost-management reasons—to eliminate coverage for non-essential procedures.

Currently, the Merck Medical Plan’s 90/10, 80/20, POS and PPO options offer coverage for certain
non-essential surgical vision correction procedures. Starting in 2002 eye surgery for conditions that can otherwise be corrected with glasses or contact lenses (for example, lasik, radial keratonomy, etc.) will no longer be covered under the Merck Medical Plan’s 90/10, 80/20, POS and PPO options.

What This Change Means To You
If you are considering corrective eye surgery (lasik, radial keratonomy, etc.) keep in mind:

For the remainder of 2001, these procedures will continue to be covered under the 90/10, 80/20, POS and PPO medical options.
The Merck Vision Care Plan—through its vendor, Vision Service Plan (VSP)—currently offers significant discounts toward the costs of these and other related vision-care services. For more information, visit VSP online at http://www.vsp.com .
Fees associated with non-covered vision-care services and procedures may be funded—on a pre-tax basis—through a health care spending account.

Fast Fact
For 2001, costs associated with vision correction benefits are the single most expensive line item in Merck’s annual U.S. health care budget.