How Much Does LASIK Surgery Cost
While Dr. Peyman initially cut flaps with a device known as a microkeratome that had been developed 40 years earlier, it was the automation of this device that helped the procedure gain momentum. It made the flaps much more precise and reproducible.
LASIK Surgery Cost
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How Much Does LASIK Eye Surgery Cost?
The average cost of LASIK surgery in the United States is approximately $2,200 per eye or $4,400 for both.
LASIK’s price has remained stable for the past 10 years, while other economic factors have risen.
It’s estimated that today’s LASIK is approximately 20 to 30% less expensive than it was just 10 years ago. 5
Many surgeons charge more for custom LASIK procedures and bladeless LASIK surgery. You can expect to pay a few hundred more per eye for each option.
Does Insurance Cover LASIK Eye Surgery?
Most health insurance plans don’t cover LASIK surgery. They consider laser eye surgery as not medically necessary. Neither Medicare nor Medicaid pays for elective eye surgery like LASIK.
Questions about LASIK? Call NVISION to speak with an experienced Patient Counselor who can answer all your questions and set up a free consultation. No commitment required.
What Factors Affect the Cost of LASIK?
Several factors can influence the cost of LASIK eye surgery:
Geographical Location
Eye surgery costs vary from one region to the next. If your doctor is located in an area with a high cost of living, their prices will probably reflect that trend.
Surgeon’s Experience and Reputation
An experienced eye surgeon with a well-earned reputation is likely in high demand. Therefore, you should expect to pay premium prices for their service.
Initial Exam and Consultation
The cost may include the initial LASIK consultation. However, this service is provided for free at most LASIK practices.
Pre-and Post-Operative Care
The price may not include pre-and post-op visits. If a problem requires additional care, it may cost extra.
There may be additional out-of-pocket costs after LASIK surgery. Patients may need to buy artificial tears for a couple of months post-surgery. Insurance doesn’t cover artificial tears.
Type of Technology and Equipment Used
Newer technologies, such as laser devices, cost more than older ones. It’s common for eye centers to pass additional costs onto the patient.
If you’re considering LASIK, get a written cost estimate that itemizes everything in the offer. Read the fine print and ask about potential additional fees before making a decision.
Degree of Correction Needed
Some eye surgeons base their prices for LASIK on the level of correction needed. Depending on the strength of your eye prescription, you may pay more or less than another patient.
Overhead Costs for the Eye Center
The type of equipment your doctor uses and whether they own or lease it can affect the overall cost. For example, if a doctor owns a laser device, they don’t need to pay to lease it. This lowers their overhead, and they may pass the savings on to their patients.
Follow-up Appointments and Procedures
Most people need at least one year of follow-up visits after LASIK eye surgery. In some cases, additional procedures may be necessary to fine-tune the vision correction.
What are the Costs of Different LASIK Procedures?
Here are the different types of LASIK surgery and their average costs per eye: 8
Conventional LASIK
Conventional LASIK, also known as traditional or standard LASIK, costs about $1,677 per eye.
Conventional LASIK is the most basic and least expensive of the LASIK procedures. This traditional approach involves using a laser or blade to make a corneal flap. In most cases, it also requires the least recovery time.
Only those with basic vision correction needs are typically eligible for conventional LASIK. A low prescription for nearsightedness is one example.
Farsighted people and those with astigmatism usually aren’t good candidates for traditional LASIK.
Custom LASIK
Custom LASIK, also known as Wavefront, costs about $2,100 per eye. People with strong lens prescriptions, and those with irregularly shaped eyes, may need a custom procedure.
Bladeless LASIK
Also known as all-laser-LASIK, bladeless LASIK costs about $2119 per eye. This technique uses a femtosecond laser, which adds to the cost. Bladeless LASIK is available for conventional and custom procedures.
NVISION Eye Centers offer custom LASIK, affordable pricing plans, and a lifetime guarantee. Learn More
Are There Discounts For LASIK?
Some individual clinics offer discounts and special offers for LASIK surgery.
There are promotions for very inexpensive LASIK. However, most people don’t qualify for the procedure provided at a discounted price.
Other Financing Options For LASIK
Other financing options for LASIK include:
Financing Plans
Many surgical practices offer financing plans to help patients cover the cost of LASIK.
There are affordable interest rates and payment plans for those who qualify.
FSA or HSA
Many employers offer flexible spending accounts (FSA) or health savings accounts (HSA). These accounts provide a tax-free way to save for the procedure.
LASIK is a qualified medical procedure for using FSA or HSA funds. Using FSA or HSA funds to pay for LASIK saves money overall on taxes.
Credit Card
Using a credit card for LASIK surgery can be an excellent way to cover the costs. Some new cards allow you to have a year or more to pay off your balance. Others may be interest-free.
Other credit cards allow you to earn the following from your payment:
You may find credit cards that enable you to transfer a balance and receive another interest-free period. This may allow you to pay off LASIK surgery costs over time. Check with your credit card for specifics.
Is LASIK Worth The Cost?
Most people who have LASIK achieve 20/20 vision. Over 99% of people who’ve had the procedure say they are pleased with the results. 12
Although most patients are satisfied with LASIK surgery outcomes, a few are not.
LASIK surgery is not without its risks. LASIK can cause side effects, including:
These symptoms affect 20% to 40% of people who have the procedure. 11
LASIK may also cause patients to experience glare and halos around lights at night. These symptoms typically last for a month or two after the procedure.
In a small number of cases, LASIK may not be effective in completely correcting vision. Some people will still need glasses or contact lenses after surgery. This is especially in low-light conditions and as they age.
Those who don’t achieve full vision correction can return to their doctor for an additional procedure.
People who’ve had LASIK rarely lose vision due to:
- Infection
- Scarring
- Poor healing
Costs of Other Laser Eye Surgeries
Here are some costs of alternative laser eye surgeries:
Photoreactive Keratectomy (PRK)
PRK is a type of refractive surgery that reshapes the cornea’s surface. Unlike LASIK, there is no incision made in the cornea.
PRK costs between $1,750 and $4,000. For example, at UCLA’s Laser Refractive Center, price estimates for PRK surgery total $2,500 per eye.
LASEK
LASEK is similar to PRK in that no incision is needed. Instead, the doctor uses alcohol to remove the corneal tissue. This procedure causes less pain than PRK. LASEK costs about $2,000 per eye.
Small Incision Lenticules Extraction (SMILE)
SMILE eye surgery is another refractive procedure. It uses a femtosecond laser to create and remove a lenticule (a small piece of corneal tissue).
On average, SMILE eye surgery costs between $2,000 and $4,000. At UCLA’s Laser Refractive Center, SMILE surgery costs approximately $2,500 per eye.
Refractive Lens Exchange
This type of surgery is for people with presbyopia or extreme farsightedness. RLE replaces your eye’s natural lens with an artificial intraocular lens (IOL).
RLE costs between $2,500 to $4,500 per eye.
In this article
Still not sure about LASIK? Talk with an experienced Patient Counselor at NVISION to find out if it’s right for you.
How Much Does LASIK Surgery Cost?
Maxine Lipner is a long-time health and medical writer with over 30 years of experience covering ophthalmology, oncology, and general health and wellness.
Published on June 25, 2021
Bryan Wolynski, OD, is a board-certified optometrist who has been in the field for over 30 years. He is an adjunct assistant clinical professor at SUNY College of Optometry and works in private practice in New York City.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
The cost of LASIK corrective eye surgery depends on a variety of factors. Insurance may or may not cover it, but some practitioners offer financing. There also may be ways to reduce the cost of the procedure. Here’s what to keep in mind when seeking LASIK (laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis).
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What Is LASIK Surgery?
LASIK first came into being in 1989 when an ophthalmologist, Gholam A. Peyman, was granted a patent on his procedure for the correction of vision. Eyeglasses and contact lenses work by bending, or refracting, light.
LASIK surgery instead reshapes the dome-shaped cornea by correcting for refraction and vision. LASIK surgery involves creating and pulling back a flap on the cornea and then using an excimer laser to reshape the tissue underneath before laying the flap back down.
A decade after LASIK’s invention, in 1999, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the procedure for the correction of vision issues such as nearsightedness. LASIK quickly overtook the surface excimer laser procedure photorefractive keratectomy (PRK), which was first performed in 1988 and involves using lasers on the surface of the cornea. PRK is still practiced.
While Dr. Peyman initially cut flaps with a device known as a microkeratome that had been developed 40 years earlier, it was the automation of this device that helped the procedure gain momentum. It made the flaps much more precise and reproducible.
Average Cost
When LASIK emerged, the cost of correcting nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism with this procedure was around $2,000 per eye. Following concerns that this price was a barrier for many, the cost decreased to about $1,600 per eye over the next few years.
These days, you can get customized LASIK in the United States for an average cost of around $2,246 per eye. Not all LASIK, however, is the same. The type of technology used for the procedure may influence the cost. Here’s what to know about the options.
Conventional LASIK
The most budget-friendly option is conventional LASIK at an average cost of $1,500 per eye. With this option, the surgeon uses a microkeratome to mechanically create the flap. A standard excimer laser is then used to reshape the cornea.
While risks are low, this procedure can have higher risks than some of the newer methods, including glare. Other factors increase the risk of glare from conventional LASIK, such as pupil size, patient sensitivity, and any history of dry eye or other eye diseases. You need to be a good candidate to get this surgery.
Keep in mind that the lower fee here strictly covers the procedure itself, without any follow-up visits. Higher costs may result if you have a complication and follow-up visits typically are not included in the price of the initial fees.
Wavefront All-Laser LASIK
For this all-laser approach, the average cost is about $2,000 per eye. The flap cut in this procedure is made by a femtosecond laser. Before the corneal ablation is performed (gently removing the surface of the cornea and treating the refractive error on its front surface), an individualized map of the surface of your eye is made, then the cornea is reshaped with a wavefront-guided laser.
This laser shines infrared light into the eye and measures for other irregularities, in addition to sphere and cylinder, that can impair vision.
If the surgeon does not use the laser to cut the flap but still uses wavefront technology to reshape the cornea, the cost will be somewhere between the price of conventional and wavefront techniques.
Contoura LASIK
This technology captures 22,000 separate images of your eye to guide in reshaping the surface. Typical technology relies on only 9,000 images. As a result, colors can be much more vibrant and textures much more nuanced after surgery. On average, this type of custom LASIK costs about $2,300 per eye.
Factors Affecting Cost:
- Degree of vision correction required
- Surgeon’s reputation, experience, and skill
- Type of laser technology used
Financing
Paying for LASIK doesn’t necessarily have to be made in one lump sum. In some cases, you may be able to get funding through a finance company.
The amount of time you have to pay back this financing will vary by the type of loan. Some plans may require you to make your payments over a short three-month period. While others may allow you to stretch these payments out as long as five years.
You can usually apply for such financing the same way you would any other loan: by contacting a company, filling out the appropriate paperwork, and supplying the necessary identification, either in person or electronically. It may even be possible to secure such financing online with extremely rapid approval, sometimes even within minutes.
In addition to outside financing options, some surgeons themselves may offer financing directly through their office. It pays to check what’s available. This may allow you to make payments over several years without extra charges.
Even if installment payments are not available, do see if the surgeon’s office has a finance company it prefers to work with. Also, be prepared to make your payments on time. Missing payments may result in costly repercussions.
Buyer Beware
While it may be tempting to consider the super discounted LASIK rates seen in some advertisements, keep in mind the following:
- Most people are not eligible for the rate offered due to the extent or type of correction needed.
- There may be additional charges for things usually bundled into the cost that are not included here, such as office visits, disposable surgical materials, or facility fees, which can bump up the cost to as much as, if not more than, the average amount.
- Older, less-accurate equipment may be used.
- LASIK re-treatments, which may be necessary if your result isn’t perfect, may not be covered in inexpensive LASIK procedures, resulting in additional expense.
Insurance
In most cases, a vision plan will not cover LASIK since this is considered a cosmetic, elective procedure. But if there is a medical reason for undergoing LASIK, such as an inability to wear glasses or contacts or it is needed due to a prior ineffective surgery or injury, the procedure may be covered.
Also, in select cases, it may sometimes be covered, at least in part. Some larger insurance carriers may offer discounts of around 50% when LASIK is performed by an in-network provider. If it is performed out of network, a smaller discount may be available.
Ways to Reduce LASIK Costs
To make LASIK more affordable:
- Check to see what your insurance policy might provide, especially with in-network doctors.
- See if you can use pretax funds in a health savings account (HSA) or flexible spending arrangement (FSA) for the procedure.
- Look into financing options that would allow you to pay for LASIK over time.
Use Your FSA or HSA
Some people rely on funds from their flexible spending arrangement (FSA, also called a flexible spending account) to help pay for LASIK. This type of account is an arrangement made with your employer to deduct a certain portion of your paycheck to be used for out-of-pocket healthcare costs. The good news is this is pretax income.
However, keep in mind you can only contribute up to $2,750 to the account annually, which may be less than what’s needed to get LASIK surgery in both eyes.
For those who have a high-deductible health insurance plan through an employer, it may be possible to build up the funds needed for LASIK in a health savings account (HSA). This allows you to contribute tax-free funds to the account, with an annual cap in 2021 of $3,600 per individual.
The good news is you can keep the money in the account and add to it the next year, making it possible to fund an average LASIK procedure this way.
Whichever financing arrangement you choose, it’s most important to research and select a reputable eye doctor skilled in determining if you are a good candidate for LASIK. This can reduce expenses related to complications.
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
- American Academy of Ophthalmology. A look at LASIK past, present, and future.
- Cataract and Refractive Surgery Today. Retail pricing in refractive surgery, part II.
- American Refractive Surgery Council. Looking at LASIK risks and benefits: night vision symptoms.
- Better Vision Guide. How much does LASIK surgery cost?
- All About Vision. LASIK financing: how to afford LASIK surgery.
- Trusted LASIK Surgeons. Cost of LASIK eye surgery.
- Medicare.org. Does Medicaid help pay for LASIK eye surgery?
- American Refractive Surgery Council. Does insurance cover LASIK? The update for 2021.
- Internal Revenue Service. Publication 969 (2020), Health savings accounts and other tax-favored health plans.
By Maxine Lipner
Maxine Lipner is a long-time health and medical writer with over 30 years of experience covering ophthalmology, oncology, and general health and wellness.