Cataract Surgery is used for the treatment of cataracts (clouding of the lens) that affects the vision of the eye and most commonly caused by aging. Cataract Surgery is recommended when the clouding of the lens makes the vision extremely blurry. If you have developed cataracts, you may need the best treatment to improve your vision and that is Cataract Surgery. During the time when you are planning for undergoing the procedure of Cataract Surgery, you may consider different things and the cost of Cataract Surgery is one most important factor among them.

The cost of Cataract Surgery ranges across the United States is from $2,390 to $10,127

There are different factors that affect the price of Cataract Surgery. These include:

• Location where the patient lives
• Insurance company or insurance provider of the patient
• Health insurance plan of the patient
• Your personal health
• Anesthesia cost or any emergencies occur during the procedure

Now you know that what factors you should consider while planning for Cataract Surgery, let’s look at the cost of Cataract Surgery with and without insurance coverage and out-of-pocket costs of the surgery :

In the United States, most of the Cataract Surgery cost is covered by Medicare or private medical insurance. The amount paid by the insurance companies and the out-of-pocket costs (a portion of the cost that is paid directly by the patient for the procedure) vary widely while depending on the deductible of insurance policy, type of IOL used for the surgery and other factors.

If the patient doesn’t cover by Medicare or private medical insurance, he/she is responsible to pay the entire amount of the procedure. In this case, the Cataract Surgery cost widely varies depending on the market conditions and the fee of the surgeon. In these cases, the eye surgeons charge the same amount for Cataract Surgery as they charge for the refractive lens exchange (RLE), a vision correction procedure that is almost identical to Cataract Surgery. The only difference is that in RLE the natural eye lens is removed and replaced before it becomes cloudy with cataract.

How much does Cataract Surgery costs with insurance?

Most of the health insurance plans cover Cataract Surgery and Medicare covers Cataract Surgery in the USA since the majority of patients who need Cataract Surgery are 65 or older. For those patients who are covered by insurance, the usual out-of-pocket costs contain coinsurance of 10% to 20% or more.

How much does Cataract Surgery costs without insurance?

According to the survey conducted in the beginning of 2017, the average Cataract Surgery cost with a standard monofocal IOL performed in the USA without insurance was $3,497 per eye. However, with the passage of time and various advancements made in the types of IOLs and surgical techniques, the price of surgery for Cataracts significantly increases. If you choose advanced surgical technology or IOL, you need to pay a large amount. For example, if you need a presbyopia-correcting IOL that reduces the dependency of glasses after surgery, the average premium for this type of IOL was $2,375 in early 2017.

What are the out-of-pocket costs of Cataract Surgery?

Most of the people who need Cataract Surgery are fortunately covered in part by some of the health insurance for all those aspects of the procedure that are considered medically essential. For example, implanting a standard monofocal intraocular lens during the procedure of Cataract Surgery is considered as medically imperative because it is necessary to implant a new Cataract Surgery lens in the eye for restoring the sight after removing clouded lens.

With this basic surgical procedure for Cataracts, you can have a good distance vision but you still need reading glasses for near vision. Moreover, if you have astigmatism before the surgery then you need prescription eyeglasses after the surgery to correct astigmatism.

Today, the majority of the people who undergo Cataract Surgery don’t want to use eyeglasses and need to get themselves as much as free. Luckily, with the advances in IOLs and surgical technology, it is now possible to fulfill this need. But, these high-technology advances come with added costs and the Medicare and private medical insurance don’t pay the added costs of these premium products and techniques. If you would like to reduce the dependency of glasses after the Cataract Surgery through these premium products and services, you need to pay their added costs by yourself (out-of-pocket) even if you have insurance coverage for Cataract Surgery.

Below table shows the added premium of advanced IOLs and the total cost of Cataract Surgery with these IOLs:

Below are the costs of different advanced techniques used for performing the procedure of Cataract Surgery:

Laser-assisted Cataract Surgery:

It is also called laser Cataract Surgery in which a femtosecond laser is used to perform the steps during the surgical procedure that are usually performed by manual surgical tools, thus ensuring the higher degree of precision. This technique is used to implant premium presbyopia-correcting IOL and astigmatism-correcting IOL. In this case, the additional cost of laser surgery is added to the price of premium IOL.    

Limbal relaxing incisions (LRI):

This technique is also called corneal relaxing incisions, an additional surgical procedure performed during Cataract Surgery for the correction of astigmatism. The average cost of LRI for correcting astigmatism is $721 per eye.

Laser arcuate incisions:

It is a minor surgical procedure that is similar to LRI; however, the incisions are made with a femtosecond laser instead of a hand-held surgical tool. The average cost of laser arcuate incisions for correcting astigmatism is $1,205 per eye.

Some more additional costs:

After performing the surgery for Cataracts, the ophthalmologist prescribes different eye drops for treating the inflammation and pain. The price of Cataract Surgery eye drops is also included as an additional cost.

Contact ophthalmologists at Menger Eye Centers for Cataract Surgery:

If you are experiencing vision problems because of cataracts and looking for an ophthalmologist for Cataract Surgery then you are at the right place. The board-certified ophthalmologists, optometrists and eye surgeons at Menger Eye Centers offer Cataract Surgery at a most affordable cost in NYC. We tailor the cataracts treatment plan according to the needs and conditions of individual patient ensuring that our patient will enjoy complete Cataract Surgery benefits ahead.

For more information or to schedule an online appointment, visit our website or center in Glendale, NYC or Call 718.386.1818.