Every optometrist in the room was shocked. Who knew the reimbursement rate could be so low for scleral lens fitting through medical insurance?
"You can sometimes lose money fitting scleral lenses, so you have to be careful", said Dr. Gloria Chiu, OD, FAAO, FSLS. This is just one of many contact lens related tips offered by our guest speaker from USC Roski Eye Institute.
Here are some more tips mentioned by Dr. Chiu during the night:
Patient wearing older designed hybrid contact lenses need to be followed up closely for corneal neovascularization due to the low Dk skirt and tight fitting nature of these lenses. The newer designed hybrid lenses have a higher Dk skirt, but still need to be fit properly.
There are many new specialty contact lens technology available including EyePrintPRO™, See-Green®™ Lens Inserter, scleral topographers like the sMap3D and more.
It is not 100% necessary to use fluorescein during diagnostic scleral lens fitting. Dr. Chiu emphasized clearance could been seen without adding fluorescein. "So save your fluorescein strips!"
Dr. Chiu touched upon her personal liking to larger sclerals, adding that a toric PC is almost a must for larger diameter scleral contact lenses.
Be careful with smaller diameter scleral lenses because the edge can sink into the conjunctiva, always check for ring marks after removal of scleral lenses during fit evaluations.
An underlying message throughout the night from Dr. Chiu was the idea that our patients' eyes are dynamic. When fitting specialty contact lenses, optometrists have to keep this idea in mind. Dr. Chiu notes, "There is no perfect fit but there is an optimal fit."
Lastly, Dr. Chiu reminded our society doctors that providing specialty contact lens services can be very rewarding. For more on specialty contact lenses, optometrists can use the following resources:
Thank you to all the attendees, Elia from Biotissue (our gold sponsor!) and Dr. Tim Jankowski representing VSP. Special thank you to Dr. Gloria Chiu for speaking and leading our intimate night of education.
For all the optometrists in the San Gabriel Valley that couldn't attend our April CE, we hope you will join us for our annual Glaucoma CE in August.
Cheers,
Steven
stevensoongod@gmail.com