Medical Eye Center, Columbia: NPI Registry Record and Eye Exam Cost Context
What the registry record says
- NPI number
- 1679633598
- Legal business name
- Medical Eye Center PA
- Registered trading name
- Medical Eye Center
- Primary registered specialty
- Ophthalmology (207W00000X)
- Practice location
- 8860 Columbia 100 Parkway, Suite 101
Columbia, MD 21045-2135 - Phone on the record
- (410) 997-9900
- NPI issued
- December 11, 2006
- Record last updated by the practice
- October 16, 2025
- Registry status
- NPI registry record, active as reported by CMS August 2026
- Metro area
- Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD
- County
- Howard County
- Locations under this name
- 3 registered nationally
- Location precision
- Street address matched by the US Census geocoder
Reading this record
The practice bills under the legal name Medical Eye Center PA and registered Medical Eye Center as its trading name, so an insurance statement may show a name that does not match the sign on the door. 3 locations nationally are registered under the same name, so pricing and policies are likely to be set at group level rather than at this office. The entry was refreshed in October 2025, putting it among the 201 of 497 Baltimore-Columbia-Towson records updated in 2024 or later, so the contact details are more likely to be current than most of this metro.
For local context: Columbia holds 32 registered eye care practices in this snapshot, 17 of them optometry and 15 ophthalmology, in ZIP codes including 21045. 2 of them took an NPI before this practice did. The closest is The National Retina Institute in Columbia, 0.0 miles away.
None of this is a licensing check. CMS issues an NPI so a provider can be identified in billing transactions, and states plainly that issuance does not ensure or validate that the holder is licensed or credentialed. The Maryland boards hold the licensing record, and the practice itself is the only source for what it charges today.
Nearest registered practices
745 other registered eye care practices sit within 25 miles of this address, a radius that does not stop at the metro boundary. Inside the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson metro itself there are 497, 31 of them elsewhere in Columbia. The closest 5 are below, measured straight line between registered addresses.
| Practice | City | Registered as | Distance | Phone on record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The National Retina Institute | Columbia | Ophthalmology | 0.0 mi | (410) 821-9490 |
| Goel Vision Columbia | Columbia | Ophthalmology | 0.0 mi | (410) 888-2020 |
| University Eye Care | Columbia | Ophthalmology | 0.0 mi | (410) 328-5929 |
| University Eye Care | Columbia | Ophthalmology | 0.0 mi | (410) 328-5929 |
| Dr K Eyecare Inc | Columbia | Optometry | 0.4 mi | (443) 631-4461 |
Distances are straight line between registered practice locations, not driving distance. Records placed at a ZIP centroid rather than a matched street address are excluded from this comparison.
What to expect to pay at an ophthalmology practice like this
The NPI registry holds no prices, so nothing here is a quote from Medical Eye Center. Based on this site's own price research, an ophthalmology practice typically charges $150 to $300 or more for an exam without insurance, against a national average of about $136 and roughly $25 once a vision plan pays its share.
Ophthalmology visits are usually medical rather than routine, which changes who pays: medical insurance and Medicare Part B cover a medically necessary exam, while a routine refraction for glasses is normally not covered. Ask whether the visit will be billed as medical or routine before you book, and compare with the 315 optometry practices on the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson page if you only need a prescription.