Optimax, one of the UK’s big 3 laser eye chains, has made a significant price hike for their wavefront LASIK treatment, the UK’s most popular type of vision correction.

Patients will now pay an additional £480 to have both eyes correct with blade free wavefront LASIK. Bilateral (both eyes) treatment has risen from £2,890 in August last year up to £3,370 today.

One of the big changes in the laser eye treatment industry is the battle for a low headline price. Optical Express lead the way with a “from £395” price headline with a huge marketing campaign across the UK. Optical Express have raced ahead over the past few years and now do more treatments than any other UK laser provider.

Optimax has responded to the challenge by dropping their headline price to match OE’s at £395 per eye (Epi-LASEK).

However, you have to look closely to see what is on offer. For Optimax, £395 will not get you either LASIK or superior wavefront vision correction. For that you will have to pay £1,290. The £395 headline is for non-wavefront surface laser which lacks the comfort and rapid recovery that makes the LASIK procedure the most popular amongst patients.

And if you want the advanced blade free Intralase laser rather than a blade, there is an additional £395 (up from £300 per eye last year) to make an Optimax price of £1,685 per eye or £3,370 for both eyes.

Optimax prices in blue as of April 30th 2008. You can compare to prices from August last year just below, in green. You can see how all prices have risen, except for the Epi-LASEK entry price of £395 per eye, which does not include wavefront advanced optics.

A complaint we hear from LASIK patient is just how much more the price escalates to once you attend for a consultation, above the advertised ‘from’ price.

As I wrote about in a recent post, Ultralase have also raised their prices to £1.945 per eye for blade free wavefront LASIK vision correction.

Both Optimax and Ultralase charge a fixed fee for all prescriptions, while Optical Express have a sliding scale based upon the strength of the prescription glasses correction required; the worse the vision, the higher the cost.

The patient attending Optical Express will find typically 3 jumps in price:

1. Additional cost for a prescription above the mild prescription of the headline price
2. Additional cost for wavefront correction ( an upgrade issued back in 2002 by VISX)
3. Additional cost for Intralase blade free dual laser correction

So overall, the UK trend is to offer a low headline price, while actual LASIK prices are on the increase.

I should add here, humbly, that FOCUS Laser Vision prices are against the trend, and we have lowered our advanced blade free wavefront correction price to the best available in the UK. However, we are a specialist clinic serving London and the South-East and without a nationwide footprint. Sorry to the rest of the UK! Blade free ‘Intralase-type’ wavefront LASIK starts at £595 per eye and most patients are not spending much more than around £1,000 per eye for this advanced treatment at FOCUS. OK, personal plug over!

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Since we introduced the Z-LASIK blade free LASIK laser eye surgery procedure into the UK in January 2008, more than 90% of our patients have opted to go dual laser (no blade) for their vision correction.

The LASIK procedure has two parts – the first is the preparation of a thin flap followed by the second stage of vision correction itself. Traditionally, a bladed device has been used to cut this flap and gave some people pause about going ahead with the surgery.

Laser blade free flap makers were introduced in 2002 by the Intralase Corporation in the US. A next generation system was released in 2007 by Swiss ZIemer Group.

The added level of safety offered by eliminating the need for a physical blade cut has proved to be very popular for patients at FOCUS Laser Vision, with 9 out of every 10 people choosing to have Z-LASIK (blade free Ziemer technology). The additional cost of Z-LASIK leaves 1 in 10 people going with the traditional blade version, M-LASIK.

The high cost of femtosecond lasers means somewhat higher LASIK prices, usually around £300 per eye higher than bladed LASIK. The reason is that the blade systems cost around £30,000 per machine compared to £200-250,000 for a femtosecond laser.

I got an email this week from a Mr. John Andrews, who was confused about LASIK laser eye surgery pricing.

John wrote:

Having visited your site I am not clear what criteria you used to determine the cost of treatment. What level of myopia do you treat for £295 per eye assuming a thick cornea and no astigmatism?

And here is my reply to John:

Dear Confused

Let me clarify!

There are two pricing models in the UK. One based on prescription and the other a fixed price per treatment type. We base short sighted correction prices on prescription, in the same way that Optical Express does.

Prices for keratome based lasik start at £295 for WAVEFRONT based lasik. This covers up to 1.5D of astigmatism and up to 1D of myopia. Anyone with up to that prescription gets wavefront treatment at that price.

NOTE: You can see the £395 headline price from Optical Express and Optimax is not what you will pay at all when you want modern wavefront LASIK. Those prices are for non-wavefront treatments and you have to pay extra if you want up to date wavefront LASIK. They start at these clinics at £795 per eye.

Our prices are for wavefront based treatment with FDA confirmation that this method outperforms ALL other lasers for custom treatments (see our web site under results.)

We are cheaper than ALL other London based clinics for a range of prescriptions. Check out my blog on this topic with a graph comparison of prices for various prescriptions at various London clinics. (keratome (bladed) wavefront LASIK)

lasik-truth.com/2008/01/25/how-much-should-you-pay-for-lasik/

To clarify, if you want keratome (bladed) lasik, for the above prescription range, then it will cost £295 per eye. If you want to upgrade to a dual laser system (most , but not all, want to take the upgrade by choice) then that will be £595 per eye. This is still markedly cheaper than other London centres.

SO:
Cheaper price, NHS consultant corneal and laser fellowship trained specialist, lasers with best FDA results.

Easy choice, isn’t it??

If you still not sure, ping me a reply!

See our featured article on LASIK prices and what the real costs are at various clinics.

You can see the £395 headline price from Optical Express and Optimax is not what you will pay at all when you want modern wavefront LASIK. Those prices are for non-wavefront treatments and you have to pay extra if you want up to date wavefront LASIK.

Click here to go directly to the page.

Here you have a comparison of what LASIK costs at London LASIK clinics. You can see 4 typical prescriptions and what each clinic charges – and you will see the huge variation in LASIK laser eye surgery prices!

For example, for a simple -1 dioptre correction there is an enormous variation in LASIK cost. The lowest is £295 per eye for wavefront LASIK and £595 for femtosecond laser blade free LASIK at FOCUS Laser Vision (www.focusclinics.com). The highest are £2145 at Moorfields eye hopspital (www.moorfields.nhs.uk) and £2250 at Centre for Sight in East Grinstead (www.centreforsight.com).

All three centres offer fellowship-trained specialist NHS London teaching hospital consultant surgeons and advanced wavefront LASIK treatments. Yet the difference in price (money you will save) is up to £3,000-£4,000 for both eyes treated for a -1D correction. For an common prescription, e.g. -2.75/-1.50 x 90, you will still save up to £2,600 from the cheapest to most expensive. And this includes teaching hospital NHS consultant surgeons at both centres, plus the best blade free all laser LASIK option. It’s a remarkable price difference.

The chart below shows prices for wavefront keratome (mechanical) LASIK laser eye surgery. Optimax and Optical Express will charge approximately £300 more per eye for all laser blade free LASIK, as do FOCUS Laser Vision. London Vision Clinic and Centre for Sight include blade free in the prices shown. Ultralase only now offer blade free LASIK but curiously still offer non-wavefront treatments, and so are not in the chart below. They charge £1895 per eye for wavefront blade free LASIK.

Check out this chart for London centres. More on this coming soon.