Of 100,000 Lasik patients 15 % had undercorrected or overcorrected vision!
Intacpatient
From the May 11, 2001 print edition
Worries mount over laser eye business
Leslie Mladinich
Livermore engineer Rajat Sewal wanted to correct his nearsightedness,
so he got on the Internet and typed in "Lasik." Up came Laser Eye
Center 2000 in San Jose.
"It was the first place to come up on my search," he said, and the
price was nice: $1,500 for both eyes.
Sewal wound up farsighted in his left eye.
Sewal is among an increasing number of unhappy laser eye patients who
have had to seek follow-up treatment from refractive surgeons who
correct surgeries that have gone wrong.
There's a growing debate within the industry as to why.
Some refractive specialists say laser eye surgery's
advertising-pumped, high-volume, low-cost procedures have created an
atmosphere that may compromise the sensitive surgery, even though
physicians doing the cheaper procedures insist they don't cut corners.
Whatever the case, Dr. Jay Bansal, medical director of five LaserVue
Eye & Rejuvenation Centers in the Bay Area, says some of his
competitors clearly try to be mills.
"I've had patients come in and say to me, `Doctor, I want you to do
it, but I want you to match the price (of cheaper places)," said
Bansal, who has one Walnut Creek rival who advertises surgery for $750
an eye. "Some places are advertising this procedure like a McDonald's
Big Mac meal deal."
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the Lasik (Laser
Assisted In Situ Keratomileusis) procedure in 1987. Between 1.4
million and 2 million Americans underwent the procedure last year
alone.
But Web sites devoted to tales of LASIK mistakes and the closing of 24
Lasik Vision centers in the United States including a few in San
Francisco and Sacramento and Canada suggest the need for
buyer-beware caution.
There's even been a name coined for inexperienced laser eye surgeons
who don't take a lot of care and time.
"These doctors are called shooters. They are clones that sit behind
the laser and hit the button," said Dr. Stephen Turner of the Turner
Eye Institute in San Leandro, San Jose and San Francisco. He and his
colleague, Dr. Nicholas Batra, devote a day each month to correct
other doctors' mistakes. They treated Sewal for $1,800.
Turner and Batra have seen about four dozen patients who've had eye
flaps that have been cut wrong or cut with unsterile blades, eyes that
have been overcorrected or undercorrected and even patients who should
have never undergone Lasik treatment in the first place. They say
centers using outdated or unclean equipment or doctors who have little
experience with the procedure are harming the industry.
"And we've seen a couple of patients who were scheduled to go to a
center and then the doors were closed," Turner said.
Since some of the publicity around the bankruptcies, however, Dr.
Craig Bindi, a refractive surgeon who practices in Pleasanton and San
Jose, has seen wiser candidates for the surgery.
"People have done more research and people are listening to
word-of-mouth. They want to make sure someone has got a good result
because most everyone knows someone who has had Lasik," Bindi said.
Keeping up with emerging technology makes a vision-correction practice
expensive. Most laser system manufacturers update their technology
every six months. The more sophisticated, safer systems can cost
upward of $500,000. A microkeratome a blade used to create the
corneal cap that allows the surgeon to apply the laser can run
$80,000. Quality centers should have at least six of these, according
to Turner. Some centers only have one.
Dr. Sam Packer, head of the American Academy of Ophthalmology's ethics
commission, says his group hasn't received any complaints yet. But
even if it did, Packer says it would be hard for his organization to
regulate the industry.
The American Society of Cataract & Refractive Surgery says it has
received isolated complaints involving refractive surgery.
Because Lasik procedures have increased, so will mistakes, says
spokeswoman Jan Beiting. She doesn't see any correlation between
high-volume centers and bad quality.
A study of 100,000 Lasik patients found that 15 percent came out with
undercorrected or overcorrected vision, according to Dr. Antoine
Garabet, president and CEO of Laser Eye Center, a Southern California
company that owns the San Jose center where Sewal got treatment. Laser
Eye Center's businesses in the Bay Area are called Laser Eye 2000.
Garabet insists that price has nothing to do with care. He says
quality centers are forced to lower their prices to compete.
Lasik Vision charged between $499 and $750 an eye before closing in
April. Previously, Laser Eye Center had charged $1,800.
"We were forced by market pressure to bring down the price to $1,500
and on rare occasions we have offered $499 for test purposes. If all
procedures were $750, we would lose money. I'm not trying to defend
Lasik Vision because what I think they've done to the market is
horrible, but I know their doctors weren't compromising patient care."
His Walnut Creek competitor, Bansal's LaserVue, has also had to bow to
the market price squeeze. LaserVue has an $1,850 per eye special this
week to celebrate its new tracking laser. Usually, it charges $2,350.
Reach Mladinich at lmlad...@bizjournals.com or 925-598-1432.
Sincerely
Intacpatient
http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/intacs
bl...@table.blackguild.nos.pam.com
[article snipped]
The "May 11, 2001 print edition" of *what*, precisely?
I couldn't find the name of this publication anywhere
in your post.
I hate to sound cynical, but when I see four posts in
a row that look very much like a sales pitch I start
getting picky about references.
--
Geoffrey Brent
Reply email: g.brent at student.unsw.edu.au
Someone who knew how to edit responses properly
wouldn't be quoting this .sig.
Intacpatient
the link was included.
http://eastbay.bcentral.com/eastbay/stories/2001/05/14/story2.html
As for this being sales pitch its much more then that. As for my
repeated posts its all because I havent posted here in a while and
want to present information that may be helpful to some. Happy to
answer any questions!
Sincerely
Intacpatient
http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/intacs
bl...@table.blackguild.NOS.PAM.com wrote in message news:<hhcqe9...@blackguild.com>...
bl...@table.blackguild.nos.pam.com
> I try to include reference links to any articles I post...I thought
> the link was included.
> http://eastbay.bcentral.com/eastbay/stories/2001/05/14/story2.html
Ah, East Bay Business Times. Thanks for the reference :-)