Alberta Government announced significant cuts to eye health care services, effective February 1, 2025. Alberta Health reimbursement for some optometry services have been reduced by up to 32% while coverage for other services has been entirely removed. In addition, the amount of retinal imaging covered by Alberta Health has been cut in half. Retinal imaging is an essential part of an eye health assessment and is required for the early detection and management of ocular health conditions effecting the internal structures of the eyes, such as glaucoma, macular degeneration, diabetic retinal changes, intraocular melanoma, and vascular occlusions, to name a few.
Our optometrists continue to be committed to providing accessible and affordable care to our patients without compromising the quality of our eye health care services. Our primary goal has always been, and will continue to be, maintaining healthy eyes for our patients. Since the opening of Woodbine Optometry in 2015, we have done our best to find avenues to reduce our costs and in some cases we have provided services at below cost to allow all of our patients to have access to eye health care. This is in spite of the Government of Alberta having given optometrists merely two 1% raises since 2014, during which time there has been cumulative rate of inflation of 27%. With the addition of the newly announced cuts, this is no longer sustainable. We want to continue to provide the same level of care that we would expect for ourselves and our families. This requires investment in technologies to prevent, monitor and treat eye conditions with the high standard of care that you are used to receiving at Woodbine Optometry. Consequently, similar to other Alberta Optometry clinics, we are proceeding with the difficult decision to implement fees for more complex eye health care visits.
Services that remain unchanged:
- For children and youth under 19 years old we will not be implementing any new fees for comprehensive eye exams and urgent care appointments at this time, as we believe that there should be no barriers to care for our youngest patients.
- Comprehensive eye exam fees for patients between 19-64 years old will remain unchanged. Third party insurance coverage is unaffected by these changes.
- Urgent care appointments with a lower complexity such as red eyes/ocular irritation/eye infections/dry eye, etc will be at no charge for all patients currently under our care.
Services that will have new fees:
- For patients 65 years and older, there will be a fee for all comprehensive eye exams (replacing the opt-in fee for OCT imaging).
- Complex urgent care appointments for adults that require evaluation of the inner structures of the eyes. This includes appointments for symptoms of retinal detachments (flashes/floaters), loss of part or all of your vision, severe headaches, recent onset of blurred vision, etc. We will advise you of the expected fees when we schedule your appointment.
- For patients requiring ongoing monitoring and imaging for complex eye health conditions such as macular degeneration, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, etc there will be a fee for the first and second follow up visit following a comprehensive eye exam within a 12 month period.
- Visual field testing.
- Cataract surgery follow-up care.
We will always discuss the fees for your eye health assessment in advance and should the need arise during your appointment for more in-depth investigation of your symptoms or due to our findings, we will obtain your consent before proceeding. If the Alberta Government rescinds any of the fee cuts, we too will remove fees in kind.
Continued Commitment to Your Eye Health
We are sure many of you are concerned about your eye health. Please be assured that we will work with you to find a plan for your eye health management that is best suited to your needs within the confines of the Alberta health care system, including referring to an ophthalmologist.
Please understand that we are as disappointed in these changes as you are. We encourage you to speak to your MLA about this matter (to find your MLA and how to contact them using your postal code, please refer to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta's member listing here: Members of the Legislative Assembly). Our association is actively advocating on your behalf to try to reverse the cuts to eye care services. Thank you as always for trusting Drs. Gupta, Wishart and Bui to take care of your eye health and vision needs.
