800 PLN for glasses and 1050 PLN for lenses. Everyone is entitled to receive the payment

• Employees who work with a display screen can apply for funding for contact lenses/vision correcting lenses
• After a visit to an ophthalmologist, during which the insured person will be thoroughly examined, they will receive appropriate recommendations and, if necessary, a prescription for corrective lenses.
• The maximum co-financing that can be obtained jointly from the National Health Fund and from the employer in the case of glasses is approximately PLN 800, and in the case of contact lenses the maximum co-financing is approximately PLN 1,050.

How to obtain funding for glasses from the National Health Fund? After a visit and examination by an ophthalmologist, an insured person will receive appropriate recommendations and, if necessary, a prescription for corrective lenses . In such a situation, the patient can go to a facility with a signed agreement with the National Health Fund to take advantage of the refund.

The National Health Fund’s co-payment for glasses depends on several factors, including:

• age,
• visual impairment
• or the amount of the beneficiary's own contribution to the limit
• financing from public funds.

How much can the National Health Fund co-finance for glasses and lenses?

Subsidy amounts for glasses and contact lenses. Rules:

• Corrective spectacle lens for near vision - public funding limit: PLN 25; beneficiary’s own contribution to the public funding limit: 0 percent: children up to 18 years of age, 30 percent – ​​adults; granting criteria: vision defects requiring correction sphere up to ± 6.00 dptr and cylinder up to ± 2.00 dptr, including a lens with prismatic power according to medical indications; period of use: in children not more often than once every 6 months, and in adults once every 2 years; repair price limit: PLN 0;
• Spectacle lens for near vision - public funding limit: PLN 100; amount of the beneficiary’s own contribution to the public funding limit: 0% children under 18 years of age, 10% adults; granting criteria: vision defects requiring correction sphere from ± 6.25 dptr and cylinder from 0.00 dptr; sphere up to ± 6.00 dptr and cylinder from ± 2.25 dptr, including a lens with prismatic power; period of use: in children according to medical indications, not more often than once every 6 months, in adults – once every 2 years;
• Spectacle lens for near vision - public funding limit: PLN 350; amount of the beneficiary’s own contribution to the public funding limit: 0% children under 18 years of age, 10% adults; granting criteria: vision defects requiring correction sphere from ± 10.00 dptr and cylinder from 0.00 dptr, including a lens with prismatic power; period of use: children - according to medical indications, not more often than once every 6 months, adults – once every 2 years;
• Corrective spectacle lens for distance vision - public funding limit: PLN 25; amount of the beneficiary’s own contribution to the public funding limit: 0% children up to 18 years of age, 30% adults; granting criteria: vision defects requiring correction sphere up to ± 6.00 dptr and cylinder up to ± 2.00 dptr, including a lens with prismatic power; period of use: children - according to medical indications, not more often than once every 6 months, adults – once every 2 years;
• Corrective spectacle lenses for distance and vision - public financing limit: PLN 100; beneficiary’s own contribution to the public financing limit: 0% for children up to 18 years of age, adults 10%; granting criteria: vision defects requiring correction sphere from ± 6.25 dptr and cylinder from 0.00 dptr; sphere up to ± 6.00 dptr and cylinder from ± 2.25 dptr, including a lens with prismatic power; period of use: children - according to medical indications, not more often than once every 6 months, adults – once every 2 years;
• Corrective spectacle lens for distance vision - public funding limit: PLN 350; amount of the beneficiary’s own contribution to the public funding limit: 0% for children up to 18 years of age, adults 10%; granting criteria: vision defects requiring correction, sphere from ± 10.00 dptr and cylinder from 0.00 dptr, including a lens with prismatic power; period of use: children - according to medical indications, not more often than once every 6 months, adults – once every 2 years;
• Hard or hybrid or miniscleral contact lens - public funding limit: PLN 600; beneficiary's own contribution to the public funding limit: 10 percent; granting criteria: keratoconus; anisometropia above 4 dptr, aphakia; period of use: once a year;
• Soft contact lens - public funding limit: PLN 150; public funding limit: PLN 600; beneficiary’s own share in the public funding limit: 10 percent; granting criteria: corneal cone; anisometropia above 4 dptr, aphakia; period of use: once a year;
• Eye prosthesis - public funding limit: PLN 700; beneficiary's own contribution to the public funding limit: 0 percent; granting criteria: no eyeball; period of use: children up to 18 years of age according to medical indications, adults once every 5 years.

Co-financing for glasses and lenses from your employer

The Labor Code states that employers are obliged to provide employees with vision-correcting glasses or contact lenses, as recommended by a doctor, if the results of eye examinations conducted as part of preventive health care indicate the need for their use while working on a display monitor.

Also, in accordance with the amendment to the regulation of the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Policy on occupational health and safety at workstations equipped with screen monitors, employees may also apply for the provision of contact lenses/vision-correcting lenses.

However – as Infor.pl points out – the regulations do not specify the minimum or maximum amount that the employer should guarantee to the employee as part of the refund for the purchase of glasses or contact lenses to correct vision.

To receive reimbursement for the purchase of glasses or contact lenses, the employee should provide the employer with (according to Infor.pl):

• a certificate from an occupational physician (issued after an eye examination as part of preventive health care) stating that the employee needs to wear glasses or contact lenses to correct their vision while working on a screen monitor, and
• an invoice for the purchase of glasses or contact lenses to correct vision – employers usually require that such an invoice be issued in the name of the employee in question and
• depending on the internal regulations in force at a given employer – an application for reimbursement of the costs of purchasing glasses or contact lenses to correct vision.

Co-payment for glasses from the National Health Fund and from the employer

Therefore, in the case of glasses, the maximum co-financing that can be obtained jointly from the National Health Fund and from the employer – according to Infor.pl – is approximately PLN 800 (assuming the average co-financing from the employer at the level of PLN 450 and PLN 350 of refund/co-financing from the National Health Fund, in the case of the most severe vision defect).

In the case of contact lenses, the maximum subsidy is approximately PLN 1,050 (assuming an average subsidy from the employer of PLN 450 and PLN 600 of subsidy from the National Health Fund).

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