How we verify

Eye Doctor Index is compiled from public records, not from who paid to be listed.

Sources

• NPPES NPI Registry (CMS) — The federal registry of National Provider Identifiers; the monthly bulk file and weekly updates are our main source.
• CMS Doctors and Clinicians (Provider Data Catalog) — Medicare-enrolled clinicians and their group practices, group size and Medicare assignment.
• American Board of Ophthalmology — Where to verify an ophthalmologist's board certification.
• FTC Eyeglass Rule (16 CFR part 456) — The federal rule that gives you a copy of your glasses prescription after a refractive eye exam; the Contact Lens Rule (16 CFR part 315) does the same for contact lenses.

We read the NPPES monthly bulk file, plus CMS's weekly updates, and keep active organization NPIs whose primary taxonomy is Optometrist (152W00000X) or Ophthalmology (207W00000X), in the United States and its territories. Individual optometrists and ophthalmologists are not listed separately: there are almost 100,000 of them, and most practise under a practice NPI listed here.

Organizations whose NPI was last updated before 2013 are left out as dormant, unless CMS's current Doctors & Clinicians file lists a group with the same name at the same ZIP. Organizations with the same name, address and ZIP are merged.

Medicare facts come from CMS's Doctors & Clinicians national file: a practice is matched to a CMS group of optometrists or ophthalmologists with the same legal name at the same ZIP. Group size counts every clinician CMS links to that group. Assignment means the group accepts the Medicare-approved amount as payment in full (CMS marks some as may accept). A listing without Medicare facts is simply not matched; it does not mean the practice refuses Medicare.

The specialty in NPPES is self-reported. A license number on a record is what the provider entered; we do not verify it. Other practice locations come from the NPPES monthly file. The retina, LASIK and pediatric groups are based only on the words in a practice's registered name.

We do not publish ratings, reviews, prices or outcomes. Order within a city: practices CMS lists as Medicare-enrolled groups first, then the most recently updated NPI records, then alphabetical. This is not a ranking of quality. Featured listings appear in a separate, labelled box and never change that order.

What a badge means

NPI active: the federal NPPES registry lists an active organization NPI with Optometrist or Ophthalmology as the registered specialty. The specialty is self-reported, so this is not a license check or board certification. We only publish positive matches. A listing without a badge is not an accusation — most gaps are name variations between registries.

Freshness

Data was last refreshed on 2026-10-16. CMS publishes the full NPPES file every month and weekly update files in between; we apply both every week, and re-read CMS's Doctors & Clinicians file, so listings are at most about a week behind, and every page shows the date of the data.

Corrections

Email sabrsystemssoftware@gmail.com or claim your listing on the for-business page. We fix verified errors within two business days.