The four major contact lens makers—Alcon, Bausch & Lomb, CooperVision and Johnson & Johnson—have implemented “price floor” policies that block sellers from offering discounts on their most popular lenses. As a result, some consumers now must pay more than twice as much for their lenses as they did two years ago.

Lens manufacturers are setting these price floors to stop discounters such as Costco, 1-800 Contacts and Vision ­Direct from undercutting prices charged by eye doctors. The lens manufacturers are eager to please eye doctors because these doctors write prescriptions for specific brands of contacts, giving them power over which lenses are successful.

Several class-action lawsuits have been filed challenging the legality of contact lens price floors, but as of May, they remain in effect. (Utah recently passed legislation designed to end lens price fixing for residents of that state.)

Two potential ways to save money…

Order lenses not covered by price-floor policies. The manufacturers have set price floors on their most popular brands, but not on all of their brands. The brands not affected typically are not the latest offerings, but they should be perfectly fine for most people. Ask a lens discounter such as 1-800 Contacts (1800Contacts.com) or Costco which lenses they still can offer at a discount.

Buy lenses at Costco. The manufacturers have agreed to let Costco provide gift cards worth 10% of the price of lenses to consumers affected by price-floor policies. Costco is not allowed to advertise these gift cards, and the cards cannot be used to purchase the contact lenses themselves.

Sample savings: 10% off $320 (one year’s supply of Acuvue Oasys for Astigmatism) is $32.