Lasik for $299: is This a Scam?

Whether it is $299, $599, or some other very low price, it is unlikely that you can have the procedure you want or need for this amount. As the price gets lower, the restrictions are greater, and more remote. I was once told that at one center that advertised $299 LASIK only 1% of patients qualified for that price, that is not very many. And everyone else paid a price that was close to market. It is difficult to get LASIK for less than $1000 per eye, and for custom blade free procedures it usually has a street price ranging from $1500-$2500 per eye. That is what LASIK really costs.

The typical deception I see with that $299 add is that it is for a prescription so small you wouldn't be looking for correction anyway.The "sale" with lots of ad ons ($) driving the price up are made before your surgeon visit. Go somewhere else. You have lots of options. Eye surgery is best done once correctly.

I would say that the $299 clinic is ripping you off, because they are not doing what they say. First of all, they almost never perform the treatment for $299, like the car dealer that has only one car at the low, low price. Average prices for these clinics are more like $1500 per eye. Secondly, the cost does not include all the things that most doctors include in the price, like followup visits, medications, enhancements when needed. These add up! Third, these clinics are using techniques and equipment that are cheap, but not necessarily what you would want for your eyes, if you really knew the inside story.

Yes this is a scam and here's why.  

 

It is virtually impossible to perform LASIK for this price.  Most places that advertise this way have complex billing protocols so that the average patient ends up paying just as much as they would at a legitimate doctor's office.  The $299 price typically is for less than one diopter of correction with no astigmatism. Which means a prescription of -1.00 or +1.00 and typically with a prescription this light you would not pursue LASIK.

 

The other option is that this price would not include post-operative care which is just as critical as the procedure itself. In any case, it is generally a mistake to seek out discount surgery.

yes, it's a scam. it costs me more than $299 to actually perform the surgery. so they would be losing money on each eye

the bad centers false advertise like this, to get you in the door. then, they say, "oh, for your Rx it will be $1,399 per eye." then, when you complain, they'll say something like "oh, that special is only for people with less than 1 diopter of myopia and no astigmatism." in other words, for people walking around legal to drive without glasses, who don't want to have it in the first place

these centers also usually do unethical things like perform these cheap procedures on an old, non-upgraded, cheaper, lesser laser, like one they bought a decade ago and have no more use for, that does not have a per-click royalty fee. of course, they don't exactly tell the patient this fact

CBS News TV a decade ago went around NYC to film all the laser centers with a hidden camera hidden in the reporter's tie clip. they caught every center in NYC doing this kind of crap, except for mine, since we do NOT do "bait-and-switch" pricing, and have a PRINTED PRICE SHEET that we give each person that is the SAME for every person

you can watch that video on my website below, and find a center caught red-handed, who's owner promises on national TV that "we will get rid of this pricing immediately" and are still doing this in all their ads. apparently, immediately means in 2 decades!

$2,000 per eye is actually a very fair quote if it is a very good surgeon.  I met with a patient recently who went to a LASIK center that advertises LASIK for $499 per eye.  After the exam, they added a variety of costs and then quoted her around $3000 per eye.

Most often this type of setup is a bait and switch operation.  The overhead for a LASIK clinic is high enough that a center could not make a profit with prices that low even with very high volume.

They say that you should not be too cheap when purchasing parachutes or eye surgery.  At the same time, there are certainly instances of patients being overcharged by doctors that feel they are the "expensive" brand of LASIK. 

Find a great surgeon with a fair price.  Remember the quality of the surgery does not depend entirely on the price you pay but if a surgeon offers a very low price, it would be rare that a patient would get the high-quality service they require.