Let's talk about Cataract surgery choices and outcomes.

Hi Jillie280; with so many questions and lingering concerns, I personally would hold off the procedure if it were my parent.  It is not an emergency surgery and the condition is not life-threatening (assuming caution is being taken with respect to driving, and minimizing falls, which can be especially serious at her age). It sounds like you need more answers pertaining to her specific situation that you can only get from someone directly involved in her care.  Medicare does pay for most of a basic cataract surgery, but as to the additional services being recommended, I have no idea. I know it's a pain, but I'd put some time and even extra money into another opinion.  Anyone here know the best Yelp-like service to locate and evaluate good eye surgeons in her area?  Feeling pressured is a red flag in my opinion, having had experiences with elderly parents.  Good luck!

It is very hard getting out of the house. She already had to go for an EKG for surgery clearance and started the pre op drops. I am just so upset that they never told us payment was due before surgery until 3 days before. I figured they would submit the bill to Medicare and I would pay after. My Mom is not a typical 81 yr old. Her mind is that of a young person. Her mind is better than mine. She justs wants to go forward with the surgery on Thursday. If it was me I would go somewhere else but she just cannot handle starting over with the exam, the medical clearance, the eye drops. It is too stressful for her. She is comfortable with the Doctor but after what happened with asking for payment today I am not. He even now said since I did not want to pay today that he would just do traditional surgery, no laser. He was adamant that the outcome would be risky without the laser.So in the end I feel bullied and I did what my Mom wanted and just paid him the 1400-. I just want Thursday to come and my Mom be OK.

She said she does not remember ever being told she has one. I do not know for sure. I was going to call the last place she had glasses made to see if they have a record of it but since it is almost 10 years they may not be able to tell me.

The surgeon knows how much astigmatism she has. You are probably having to pay so much because she is getting the toric implant. Medicare will not pay for the toric unless something has changed. Personally, I wouldn't be interested in a toric implant unless I had at least 2 diopters or more in cylinder correction. Advanced cataracts deprive the eye of a tremendous amount of light. Light deprivation alone can cause depression and sleep problems.

Cataract surgery can be done on advanced cataracts without femto laser, therefore Medicare does not cover it. The only way you would not have to pay for it is if the doctor did it for free and didn't submit the paperwork for it to Medicare. Doctors do charity cataract operations in other countries on people with very advanced cataracts without using laser (like in Burma - for anyone interested, google "Restoring eyesight with a simple, inexpensive surgery" to see the 60 Minutes episode on it).

I know the cataracts could be done on advanced cataracts without a laser. It has been done for a very long time. It is funny you mentioned that 60 minutes episode. We watched it. We were thinking about all the eye drops she has to use and were they given all those drops that cost hundreds of dollars? We were just made to feel that the outcome would be questionable and the surgery very risky if we went the traditional route. I just felt if we went the regular way and the outcome was bad I did not want the Doctor to say" I told you the outcome may not be good" I care about my Mother more than anything and I was not taking any chances so I said ok to the Femto. Yes...he lined his pockets in I feel a not so honest way. 

Referring to Nina's link about cataract surgery in Burma.

You're welcome Leslie and there's a video of the segment that was on 60 Minutes. I'll send you that link privately since we can't post links here.

I know, I thought the same thing about the eye drops in the 60 Minutes episode. Probably all those drops aren't even necessary (and I paid $360 for both eyes for the eye drops alone which was probably around half the total amount I paid for the surgery and that's with a discount coupon and insurance!). It's done now, all you can do is hope for the best.