I got LASIK surgery in December 2007 and was able to get a great deal to save money by not having any interest payments on the balance. I want to wear colored contact lenses again so I thought I would call up the eye doctor where I had my LASIK done and get a prescription.

Now the last time I went in for an exam they told me that I could just call in to get the prescription because the brand of contacts that I wanted was not one they were really familiar with. I called the doctor to get my stuff set up only to be met with a brick wall.

I was told that most people who got LASIK never wanted to see another contact lens for the rest of their life …so the doctors there did not write prescriptions any more.

What they would do is to order the lenses for the person who really wanted them and the person would collect the lenses from the office. They then proceeded to tell me that this brand of contact lens that I wanted was not one they were affiliated with so they would not be ordering it for me.

Now this is what I don’t understand. Even if they do not write prescriptions because they do not carry prescription pads in the office..they know what my prescription would be. The place that I order my contact lenses from would call the office to verify that this was indeed the correct prescription. The piece of paper is simply something that I can have in my hands if I decided to walk into a store or if I needed to get the contacts on a Sunday when the doctor’s office was closed.

The REAL prescription is what is noted in my file and since the contact lens place has to call and speak to the doctor, who has to check the file, I don’t really NEED to have a physical piece of paper in my hand. Case in point where I ‘forgot’ the prescription one time and the contact lens place said they did not need it..just hold on a minute while they called my eye doctor.

So now they are refusing to give me the prescription over the phone or even tell me what my eyes measured at because they do not ‘give out prescriptions’.

They are telling me that I need to go to another doctor…and pay more money to have another eye exam done in order to get a prescription.

What do you think of this situation?


Update : After spending a long time on the phone I finally got through to someone who told me the reason they do not write prescriptions is because the doctor does not recommend that people wear contacts. He believes that the use of contacts puts your eyes at risk for infection so once he does the surgery you need to go somewhere else to get contact lenses because the office does not want to be ‘responsible’ for if you get an infection.

Okay now I understand the concern here…but how is it their responsibility if I get an eye infection from wearing contacts? If I am not responsible enough to take care of my eyes then that is my business. Once they do the surgery and you are clear within the time period what happens after is not the doctor’s concern.

Once the other eye doctors write the prescription it is not their business if you choose to sleep in the contacts or clean them with water from a puddle in the middle of the road.

They did finally tell me that I had 20/20 vision in both eyes according to the last visit..but said I could not get a specific ‘prescription’ because of the policy of the center.


Oh yeah and I also have to sign a few release forms to get my OWN information AND pay $25 to get a copy of MY medical records. Why do I have to sign a release to get my own records? They are mine!!! It is MY information. MY eyes!!! I don’t understand.