Here are six key points from the blog
1. According to Mr. Levy, ophthalmologists have been able to achieve consistent quality delivered at a low cost. However, the specialty makes procedures unnecessarily expensive by using high-cost technology such as femtosecond lasers.
2. He notes that Michelle Andrews at Kaiser Health News also wrote about this issue and summarized a recent study published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
3. Ms. Andrews writes that patients are often required to get preoperative tests before cataract surgery, a practice that hasn’t been recommended in more than 12 years.
4. The NEJM study also found that 53 percent of cataract surgery patients had at least one preoperative test in the month before surgery. Additionally, expenditures on testing during that month were $4.8 million higher than the mean monthly expenditures during the preceding 11 months.
5. Study authors also said that research shows that preoperative testing for cataract surgery doesn’t result in fewer adverse events, Ms. Andrews notes.
6. Mr. Levy calls for organizations such as the American Academy of Ophthalmology and CMS to take note of this issue.
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