Primary Vision Care Center, Surf City: NPI Registry Record and Eye Exam Cost Context
What the registry record says
- NPI number
- 1164177838
- Legal business name
- Gateway Vision Care, OD, PA
- Registered trading name
- Primary Vision Care Center
- Primary registered specialty
- Optometrist (152W00000X)
- Practice location
- 13520 Nc Highway 50
Surf City, NC 28445-6554 - Phone on the record
- (910) 803-0556
- NPI issued
- February 21, 2022
- Record last updated by the practice
- February 21, 2022
- Registry status
- NPI registry record, active as reported by CMS August 2026
- Metro area
- Wilmington, NC
- County
- Pender County
- Location precision
- Street address matched by the US Census geocoder
Reading this record
The practice bills under the legal name Gateway Vision Care, OD, PA and registered Primary Vision Care Center as its trading name, so an insurance statement may show a name that does not match the sign on the door. The entry was last refreshed in February 2022. That is neither fresh nor ancient by the standards of this metro, where 12 of 69 records were updated in 2024 or later and 39 predate 2020.
For local context: Surf City holds 2 registered eye care practices in this snapshot, 2 of them optometry and 0 ophthalmology, in ZIP codes including 28445. 1 of them took an NPI before this practice did. The closest is Primary Vision Care Center, O.D., P.A. in Surf City, 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 North Carolina boards hold the licensing record, and the practice itself is the only source for what it charges today.
Nearest registered practices
41 other registered eye care practices sit within 25 miles of this address, a radius that does not stop at the metro boundary. Inside the Wilmington metro itself there are 69, 1 of them elsewhere in Surf City. The closest 5 are below, measured straight line between registered addresses.
| Practice | City | Registered as | Distance | Phone on record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primary Vision Care Center, O.D., P.A. | Surf City | Optometry | 0.0 mi | (910) 803-0555 |
| Lori Farabaugh 360 OD PLLC | Hampstead | Optometry | 5.7 mi | (502) 244-2441 |
| Hampstead Optometry PA | Hampstead | Optometry | 8.2 mi | (910) 507-2019 |
| Atlantic Eye Associates OD PA | Hampstead | Optometry | 8.7 mi | (910) 270-2800 |
| Atlantic Eye Associates | Hampstead | Optometry | 8.7 mi | (910) 270-2800 |
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 Primary Vision Care Center. 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 69 practices on the Wilmington page give you the full local field to call around.