Thursday, February 21, 2008

How Much Does Laser Eye Surgery Cost?

Can you afford Laser eye surgery? Most insurance plans won’t cover the cost since it is an elective surgery and linked more closely with cosmetic surgery. There are exceptions, however, but in most cases insurance won’t pay.

Laser eye surgery cost analysis demonstrate a wide variety of prices and an even wider variety of what is included in the price of the surgery. For example, is the initial consultation and examination included in the price should you elect the surgery? Are post-operative visits included in the price? How many? What about the eye drops used during the surgery? Some laser surgery centers charge as much as $100 for those drops.

As far as the cost of the actual surgery itself, advertised prices are usually per eye. Since it’s really not a good idea to have surgery on both eyes at once, you will probably just be looking at the cost of one eye initially.

Beware of Laser surgery centers advertising this surgery for $299 or $399 per eye. As a matter of fact, in November of 2005 a Florida company settled a false advertising claim that was brought by the Illinois Attorney General’s office. The suit alleged that the company did not make a full disclosure of their prices. They were advertising laser eye surgery for $299 an eye but customers were paying much more.

Why does laser eye surgery cost so much? It’s not a cheap business to run. The equipment is expensive, training employees is expensive and even royalties have to be paid to manufacturers. Laser eye surgery can cost as much as $2500 an eye. Yet in the same city you can find a well qualified eye surgeon to do the same surgery for $1500. so it pays well to shop around. Don’t accept laser eye surgery cost estimates. Insist on a breakdown of every charge.

Don’t make the mistake of letting your decision be based totally on cost though. This is far too important a procedure to be based solely on money. Make sure too, that you are given a full evaluation before you agree to the surgery. This involves more than just an oral consultation. This is not something for which you can be screened online either. It’s important that the eye surgeon examine your eyes before he can make his recommendation.

There are many questions to ask yourself besides, “How much does laser eye surgery cost?” Once you investigate all the different aspects of laser eye surgery, money may be the least of your concerns!

2 comments:

James said...

Price has dropped down recently. For example in the UK you can find wavefront lasik surgery starting at £295 per eye!

http://www.eyes-surgery.com

Unknown said...

We appreciate that you are giving eyecare facilities to the people.

There should be a regular eye check-up also besides all important precautions.

I suggest two donation based eye clinics for poor patients for checkup and surgeries, Vision Trust Eye Clinic and Mehr-un-Nisa Eye Clinic for Eye Surgeon

And please send your donations to us to help us helping more eye patients.

Best regards
VTMECPK