Prevention of Blindness Society of Metropolitan Washington Inc, Bethesda: NPI Registry Record and Eye Exam Cost Context
What the registry record says
- NPI number
- 1184500621
- Legal business name
- Prevention of Blindness Society of Metropolitan Washington Inc
- Primary registered specialty
- Optometrist (152W00000X)
- Other registered specialties
- Optometrist, Low Vision Rehabilitation
- Practice location
- 4948 Saint Elmo Ave Ste 209
Bethesda, MD 20814-6066 - Phone on the record
- (202) 234-1010
- NPI issued
- August 12, 2025
- Record last updated by the practice
- August 27, 2025
- Registry status
- NPI registry record, active as reported by CMS August 2026
- County
- Montgomery County
- Locations under this name
- 3 registered nationally
- Location precision
- Street address matched by the US Census geocoder
Reading this record
Beyond the primary code the record carries Optometrist, Low Vision Rehabilitation, which is the registry's own signal that the practice covers more than routine work. 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 August 2025, putting it among the 133 of 375 Washington-Arlington-Alexandria records updated in 2024 or later, so the contact details are more likely to be current than most of this metro.
For local context: Bethesda holds 33 registered eye care practices in this snapshot, 18 of them optometry and 15 ophthalmology, in ZIP codes including 20814. 28 of them took an NPI before this practice did. The closest is George A. Patterson III Mdpc in Bethesda, 0.3 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
778 other registered eye care practices sit within 25 miles of this address, a radius that does not stop at the metro boundary. Inside the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metro itself there are 375, 32 of them elsewhere in Bethesda. The closest 5 are below, measured straight line between registered addresses.
| Practice | City | Registered as | Distance | Phone on record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| George A. Patterson III Mdpc | Bethesda | Ophthalmology | 0.3 mi | (301) 652-7061 |
| Charles F. Bahn, M.D. | Bethesda | Ophthalmology | 0.3 mi | (301) 657-3022 |
| Myeyedr. | Bethesda | Optometry | 0.4 mi | (301) 718-2424 |
| Myeyedr. | Bethesda | Optometry | 0.4 mi | (301) 718-2424 |
| Komm Medical Eye & Vision Group, Ltd. | Bethesda | Optometry | 0.4 mi | (301) 654-7180 |
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 optometry practice like this
The NPI registry holds no prices, so nothing here is a quote from Prevention of Blindness Society of Metropolitan Washington Inc. Based on this site's own price research, an independent optometry practice typically charges $120 to $200 for an exam without insurance, against a national average of about $136 and roughly $25 once a vision plan pays its share.
Ask two things when you call: whether the quoted fee includes the refraction, and what a contact lens fitting adds if you wear lenses, since that takes a visit to $150 to $370. A comprehensive exam is $100 to $250. If price is the deciding factor, the 375 practices on the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria page give you the full local field to call around.