In Morocco, a customer who buys glasses on prescription can claim part of the cost back from their health insurance: the CNOPS for public-sector employees, the CNSS under the AMO scheme for the private sector. In neither case is your shop the one being paid. The customer pays in full, submits a file, and is reimbursed weeks later.
Whether that file goes through depends largely on what you handed them on the way out. A customer whose file comes back rarely comes back to the same optician. This article lists what to give them, and what makes a file fail.
Who reimburses what
Both funds follow the same logic: the frame and the lenses are reimbursed separately, each up to a ceiling set by the national reference tariff, and no more often than a set interval, shorter for children whose sight is still changing. The exact amounts are revised by decree. Keep the current schedule at the counter rather than in your memory.
| Fund | Who is covered | Form | Where the file goes |
|---|---|---|---|
| CNOPS | Civil servants, state and local-authority staff, public-sector pensioners, and their dependants | CNOPS care sheet (feuille de soins), or the customer's mutual fund's own form | The customer's mutual fund (MGPAP, OMFAM, MGEN…), which forwards it to the CNOPS |
| CNSS — AMO | Private-sector employees, CNSS pensioners, registered self-employed workers, and their dependants | AMO care sheet | A CNSS agency, or online where available |
Customers usually know which of the two they belong to. If in doubt, their registration card or payslip says.
The four documents in the file
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The ophthalmologist's prescription
Dated, stamped by the doctor, with the patient's name and the correction for each eye. A measurement taken in your shop does not replace it: the fund requires a medical prescription. Check the date, because a prescription that is too old is refused, and the accepted age depends on the fund.
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The care sheet
The fund's own form, completed and stamped by the prescribing doctor in their section, and by you in the supplier section: your details, your stamp, the delivery date. A form without the shop's stamp comes back.
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The itemised invoice
In the patient's name, with the frame and the lenses on separate lines and the correction of each lens. It is the one document entirely in your hands, and the one that most often sinks a file. Details below.
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A copy of the insurance card or national ID
Supplied by the customer. Remind them: it is the document most often forgotten, and the file sits blocked because of it.
The invoice that goes through
The funds do not read an invoice the way an accountant does. They look for specific boxes and reject when one is missing. On a glasses invoice they look for:
- the patient's name, and for a child, the name of the insured parent as well;
- the frame on its own line, with its price;
- the lenses on one or two lines, with the correction of each eye (sphere, cylinder, axis, addition) and their price;
- an invoice number and a date later than the prescription's;
- your identifiers: shop name, address, ICE, tax ID, and your stamp;
- the word "paid" or the payment method: an unpaid invoice is not reimbursed.
An invoice with a single line "complete glasses: 1,800 DH" is the most common reason for rejection. The fund cannot apply two ceilings to one figure.
Deadlines and renewals
Two time limits matter. The filing deadline: the customer has a limited time after the purchase to submit, set by the fund. Advise them to file within the month whatever the official limit is. And the renewal interval: a new pair is only covered after a set time since the previous one, unless the doctor documents a change in correction, which is where children are treated differently.
If a customer comes back before the interval because of a breakage, say so plainly: this pair is at their own expense. A customer told in advance accepts it. A customer who learns it from a letter two months later holds you responsible.
Can the customer be reimbursed without a prescription?
No. Both funds require a prescription from an ophthalmologist. A measurement taken in the shop, however accurate, opens no entitlement. If the customer has no prescription, send them to an ophthalmologist before the sale, not after.
Should a child's invoice be in the child's name or the parent's?
In the child's name, since the child is the patient, with the insured parent's name and the relationship shown on the invoice or the care sheet. A file in the parent's name alone, while the prescription names the child, is returned.
Is a quote or an order slip enough?
No. It has to be a paid invoice, meaning a settled sale. A quote proves nothing, and an order slip is not an accounting document.
Should the right and left lenses be on separate lines?
It is not required everywhere, but it is accepted everywhere, and it lets the reader see each eye's correction without ambiguity. Two lens lines, each with its correction, is the layout that never comes back.
What OpticAdmin does
The invoice printed from a visit always separates the frame from the lenses, carries the correction of each eye from the prescription you entered, shows your ICE, tax ID and invoice number, and lists the payments received. The prescribing doctor's name is on it too. Nothing to retype, nothing to forget.