Surgical trends may continue after pandemic ends
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Even after the pandemic subsides, some trends in clinical and surgical care should continue, according to a speaker.
“It just makes sense” to move in the direction of bilateral immediately sequential cataract surgery, Elizabeth Yeu, MD, said at the virtual Eyecelerator meeting. “It’s a safer option for patients.”
For routine cataract surgeries, there would be fewer visits to the clinic in the postoperative period and to the OR, she said.
“And we already see that there’s a shift toward more cataract surgery that’s being performed in the ASC setting, but we do definitely have some considerations and potential hang-ups that will affect how likely that bilateral cataract surgery will happen,” Yeu said.
For example, reimbursement in a fee-for-service setting for any second procedure is cut by 50%, she said.
“Whether or not I want to do bilateral surgery, I have to justify [the procedure] to the ASC and the hospitals where I’m operating,” Yeu said.
The reimbursement model needs to change, she said, whether it is more reimbursement for the second eye, a bundled payment or an alternative option that is implemented to make it more likely for facilities as well as surgeons to make bilateral surgery more popular.
“This would be for that routine cataract surgery, those who are having basic manual surgery, not going down the cash-pay premium channel option,” Yeu said. “These are patients who I may preferentially still stage their surgeries because knowing what the first eye does and seeing their satisfaction level does affect what I choose for a lens option for surgical planning of that second eye.”
The current global crisis is going to change the way elective surgery is performed for a long time, she said.
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COVID, capital markets, and consolidation: Impact of 3 C’s on innovation. Presented at: Eyecelerator; Nov. 6, 2020 (virtual meeting).
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