April 2009 Issues

American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery

Summary: The recession is hurting most practices, and many refractive doctors have already transitioned to other procedures, such as cataract and glaucoma surgery, cut spending for new equipment to little or nothing, and reduced salaries and staff hours. Reimbursement continues to be a problem. ♦ Refractive surgeons are making do with their current lasers and not buying new ones. Although doctors like the Alcon Wavefront technology, they said it is expensive. ♦ Premium IOLs were the hot topic at the meeting, but they are still being put in a small percentage of patients (<10%) because of their cost. Alcon’s ReStor +3.0 was getting the most attention, followed by AMO’s Tecnis. Both will likely cannibalize their own prior lenses, though ReStor may take some market share from Bausch & Lomb’s Crystalens. No doctors interviewed currently use AMO’s ReZoom. ♦ Doctors are delaying getting electronic medical record software for as long as they can, citing unreasonable expense, no advantage for their patients, and lack of standardization. ♦ A new ASCRS task force on LASIK safety, scheduled to publish its results later this month, reinforced the safety of LASIK.

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