Dr. Robert E. Benedett 
Diplomat, American Board of Ophthalmology
Member, American Society of Retina Specialists

When you are a new patient, your visit will be longer than most due to the time it takes to adequately record your health history, medications, and any other information required to treat you. Also, there is a good chance we will be performing additional testing on you since this is your first visit with us. You should allow at least 3 hours for your visit, maybe longer, depending upon the treatment required for your specific condition.

Every time you have an appointment to see Dr. Benedett, a technician will evaluate your vision, intraocular pressure, and will put dilating drops in your eyes. After your pupils have dilated sufficiently, you will be examined by Dr. Benedett. Dilating drops frequently blur vision for a length of time which varies for each person and may make bright lights uncomfortable. For your safety and the safety of others, we always recommend bringing a driver and sunglasses to your appointments.

What to bring to your appointment

In order to expedite the new patient check-in process, we ask you to print out all of the required new patient registration forms, complete these forms and bring them with you to your first appointment (The forms are available on this website under the PATIENT FORMS tab.)

Health and Medications Form 

This form includes:

• Any health history summary available
  
• List of current medications including eye drops
  
• List of drug allergies and the reactions you have from them
  
• Names, addresses and phone of any other physicians you are seeing
  
• Name, address, and phone of the pharmacy you use
  

Your prescription eyeglasses or contact lens power

Medical insurance cards

Driver’s license

Sunglasses

A driver

The length of your visit

We try to make sure that you are seen on time. However, because our practice often involves emergency patient care, our appointment schedule can become delayed. Depending on the nature of your problem and possible testing involved you may spend several hours at our office. When you leave your appointment your eyes will be dilated so we recommend that you have a driver with you.

Medicare

We participate in the Medicare program. This means that Medicare will pay us directly for 80% of their allowable charge after you have satisfied your annual deductible. If you have supplemental insurance, Medicare is billed for the 20% balance. Otherwise, you will be responsible for the balance. You could also be responsible for services not covered by Medicare. If treatment recommendations are outside the Medicare coverage guidelines these will be discussed prior to the service being rendered.

Private Insurance

We participate with most private insurances and many managed care plans. If your insurance requires a referral from a PCP (Primary Care Physician) it is your responsibility to insure that we receive that referral prior to the day of your visit. We file insurance claims for our patients. However, deductible and co-payments are collected at the time of service. Your insurance contract defines of the extent of coverage. While we will assist you in filing our claim, it is your responsibility to pay the charge in full.

Payment Plans

While your health is our first priority, we are sensitive to the cost of health care and will do our best to deliver your care in the most cost effective manner possible. Thus, if you do not have insurance, we ask that you make payment for office services at the time of your visit. If you are unable to pay your balance in full, our accounts manager will work with you to come up with a mutually agreeable and realistic payment plan.