lasik eye surgery

Lasik Eye Surgery - Does Insurance Cover? Determining the Medical Necessity of Cosmetic Treatments

lasik eye surgery | September 19, 2006 12:50:25

Eye use may be fashion paraphernalia, however when you bank on it for seeing the world, it’s a lot more. Today, many citizens are shifting to refractive laser eye surgery, such as Lasik surgery, to improve their vision. However, this high-cost surgery is usually not paid for by insurance because it fails to meet the conservative therapy test and is classified as cosmetic. This trend is changing.

We are seeing an increasing number of circumstances where refractive surgery is determined to be medically essential and, on that ground, payable by the insurance provider. For example, if conservative therapy cares fail or if a patient is intolerant of contact lenses and cannot use glasses because they could pose a cause for alarm in their job (e.g. police or firefighters), refractive eye surgery may be the most medically viable care option, even for a simple case of astigmatism.

Examples of standard therapy Cares include the following:

Photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) – a refractive surgery operation that is often done (and covered) for a patient that suffers from habitual corneal erosion (e.g. diabetics). With PRK, a laser is used to remove corneal tissue to correct vision problems.

Patching, epithelial debridement (mechanical removal of faulty tissue), and bandaged contact lens placement – Treatments that often don’t work.

Stromal puncturing – involving the eye doctor puncturing the anterior corneal stroma – can also be used yet can fail or result in permanent vision loss. In such cases, PRK, Lasik, is the top alternative for removing the damaged cells (or membranes) and possibly fixing the vision problems.

Physicians, performing lasik eye surgery washington dc, can help patients who are in medical require of laser eye surgery make a stronger case by initiating the following:

* Document a full medical history of the patient’s eye complaints

* Show proof that the patient has not responded to conservative Treatments and that the purpose of the surgery is for medical reasons other than simply improved eyesight

* Still, even when the eye doctor does this, each decision is taken on a case-by-case body of theory and is subject to the extenuating circumstances clearly noted in the patient’s medical records.


Trevor Rockeinerwier for lasik.1nfonow.com

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