Please share a little bit about how dry eye examinations can be covered by medical insurance and why

Many medical insurance will cover a full eye exam for complaints with dry eye. Dry eye and tear film quality in general has so much to do with the way that we see that it is not given nearly enough credit in some circumstances, in my opinion. I tell patients almost daily that the first thing light hits when it enters the eyes is the tear film. If you don’t have a good quality tear film, poor evaporation time, and/or a dry cornea behind the tears you will not get good vision. I have to constantly coach people blink while doing refractions all day. I tell patients that any time you notice your vision changing for better or worse that is all the tear film contributing to that. There are many instance where a patient’s prescription glasses may be fine, but the tear film is so unstable that it is causing blurred vision or not stable clear vision throughout the day. One may need a full eye exam to assess vision and ocular surface health to see if this is their issue or not.