CMS grants NTIOL status to two Bausch & Lomb lenses

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has granted new technology IOL status to the regular and violet-filtering models of Bausch & Lomb's SofPort Advanced Optics IOLs. Reimbursements for both lenses have been increased by $50, Christine Oliver, vice president of professional communications, told Ocular Surgery News in an interview.

"It's $150 currently allowed under the Medicare reimbursement, and this would be a $50 enhancement to that. Only ASC-based surgeons are entitled to this additional reimbursement, so this is obviously a huge portion of the cataract procedures done in the U.S.," Ms. Oliver said.

The increased reimbursements will remain in effect through Feb. 26, 2011, according to a press release from the company.

Ms. Oliver noted that the entire cost of the IOLs will be covered by the enhanced reimbursement, meaning that patients will pay nothing out-of-pocket. In contrast, a recent CMS ruling required patients themselves to the pay the additional costs for presbyopia-correcting IOLs.

"That allows pass-through billing," Ms. Oliver said, referring to the ruling on presbyopia-correcting IOLs. "The patients will personally take out money to pay the difference between the cost of the lens vs. any kind of reimbursement program," she said, noting that such lenses cost considerably more than the $50 difference.

Both SofPort lenses feature a novel aberration-free design that Bausch & Lomb applies to all of its IOLs, Ms. Oliver said.

To achieve NTIOL status, the lenses demonstrated clinical benefit at least equal to the Tecnis IOL (Advanced Medical Optics), which established the NTIOL subset for aberration reduction, she said.

Editor's note: The OSN SuperSite News Wire sent out on March 15 incorrectly referred to the violet-filtering model of the SofPort Advanced Optics IOL as a blue-blocking lens. Ocular Surgery News regrets the error.