05/24/2005

Eye Surgery Procedure Gets Medicare Coverage

New benefit could help cataract sufferers gain vision

A new Medicare benefit could make life easier for people suffering from cataracts.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ruled this month that it would help pay for presbyopia-correcting intraocular lenses (IOL) for those suffering from cataracts or near or far sightedness.

Before the ruling, cataracts sufferers were limited to the implantable conventional IOL that typically required glasses for reading.

"Medicare never allowed them to pay the difference," said Vance Thompson, a local opthamologist who offers the surgery.

Before the ruling, it was the conventional Medicare approved procedure or nothing, he said.

Vance Thompson Vision is the only Sioux Falls center that offers the presbyobia IOL.

Medicare now allows beneficiaries to use the more advanced lens and pay the difference in cost from the conventional one. The difference adds up to $750 per eye, but Thompson said that's not a deterrent for most people.

"A lot of people don't think that's very much for their vision," he said.

In the end, it will be up to patients to decide whether they want to spend the extra money to avoid wearing glasses.

"Some patients will say, 'I don't want to invest the extra money. I don't mind glasses. I like the bifocals,' " Thompson said. "What's awesome about this is patient choice is preserved."

Marie Van Hofwegen, of Arnolds Park, Iowa, is one person who opted for the advanced lens implant. She doesn't use Medicare and had the choice to use either lens last May. Now she has 20/20 vision, and she doesn't have to rely on glasses.

"The results ... you just can't believe," she said. "You have the eyes you were born with.

"I'm in the September of my years, and I thought it was fun to have 20/20 vision."

In addition to making the procedure available to patients, the ruling opens the door for future development of technology.

"As new technology develops, if you don't allow any of the new technology to be on the market or be paid for in some way, you basically put a roadblock to developing something down the road that may be very significant," said Thomas White, an opthamologist and owner of Great Plains Eye Clinic Ltd.

White said he'll probably start offering the surgery as demand increases.

The doctors at Sioux Valley Clinic Ophthamology and Optometry don't offer the lens to correct cataracts. The main reason is because patients don't want it, said Michael Ford, an opthamologist at the clinic.

"The fact is most patients having cataracts wear glasses, and it doesn't bother them generally to wear glasses afterwards," Ford said. "They're quite happy if they just have to wear them to read."

Ford said the surgery is not for everybody because it can create side effects such as halo vision around lights at night.

Kelly Hildebrandt