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August 16 2012
.jpg "Bupa and Optical Express team up on cataract surgery")
Bupa has announced that people with its health insurance ‘now have the option of undergoing cataract surgery at Optical Express centres around the UK’. The formal announcement comes after Bupa cut the fees it pays surgeons, from £741 to £289.
The development also comes after the Optical Confederation issued a warning to optometrists about the ‘paperless’ referral of Bupa-insured patients for private cataract surgery (OT news 27/7/12).
“This perhaps explains why the Bupa cataract referral letter boasted that form filling, or letter preparation, was not required as the pre-op optometric assessment would be assigned to an Optical Express optometrist,” said the AOP’s professional adviser, Geoff Roberson.
“Bupa praises its new arrangement as ‘increasing patient choice’, however what
it is doing appears to suggest the opposite. My understanding is that surgery is undertaken at only five city surgical centres, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Bristol, Manchester and London,
unless the patient wants to pay significant top-up fees to see the local surgeon of their choice.
“Nothing we have heard from Bupa has addressed the issue of how, and at what point, the patient is passed back to their own optometrist for post- operative and ongoing care.”
Pressed by OT for comment to the optical sector, the official press release was re-issued in which chairman and CEO of Optical Express, David Moulsdale (pictured) said: “Optical Express is committed to delivering quality eye care with clinical excellence and now Bupa members can benefit from exceptional quality of vision.
“Optical Express has been providing quality eye care for over 20 years with a documented level of success. Customer care is at the heart of everything we do and we look forward to building a new relationship with Bupa.”
On cutting consultants fees, Bupa told OT: “The fee that we were paying consultants for cataract surgery, £741, had fallen out of line with the time and complexity required to perform the operation. We now pay consultants £289 for this operation because, today, it is a common procedure. We are committed to keeping health insurance affordable.”
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