Eyeworld

15 EW NEWS & OPINION August 2014 Horizontal Safety Chopper Video Vertical Safety Quick Chopper Video Seibel* Nucleus Choppers Complete Vertical & Horizontal Chopping, Available In Stainless & Titanium 3360 Scherer Drive, Suite B, St. Petersburg, FL 33716 800-637-4346 • Tel: 727-209-2244 • Fax: 727-341-8123 Email: Info@RheinMedical.com • Website: www.RheinMedical.com * Developed In Coordination With Barry S. Seibel, M.D. Young Woman at Her Toilet, Titian ACBD 1314 Rev.B 8-14516 8-14535-R 8-14536-R B) Vertical Chopping 8-14535-R: Seibel Vertical Safety Quick Chopper, Right Hand Dominant. 8-14535-L: Seibel Vertical Safety Quick Chopper, Left Hand Dominant. C) Horizontal & Vertical Chopping 8-14536-L: Seibel Nucleus Horizontal Safety Chopper & Safety Quick Chopper, Left Hand Dominant. 8-14536-R: Seibel Nucleus Horizontal Safety Chopper & Safety Quick Chopper, Right Hand Dominant. A B C A) Horizontal Chopping 8-14516: Seibel Nucleus Horizontal Safety Chopper-Right Hand Dominant, Angled. 05-4040: Seibel Nucleus Horizontal Safety Chopper, Angled- Right Hand Dominant Surgeon-Titanium. 8-14516-L: Seibel Nucleus Horizontal Safety Chopper-Left Hand Dominant, Angled. 8-14516-S: Seibel Nucleus Horizontal Safety Chopper-Right Hand Dominant, Straight. 05-4040-S: Seibel Nucleus Horizontal Safety Chopper, Straight- Right Hand Dominant Surgeon-Titanium. 8-14516-SL: Seibel Nucleus Horizontal Safety Chopper-Left Hand Dominant, Straight. but things got serious very quickly. He immediately dove into all the research we had provided him prior to the meeting. It was obvious he had read every word and was taking the development of the premium channel seriously. Rep. Cox quickly laid out a series of steps to be taken and meetings to be held. His direc- tion was clear and unambiguous. He believed the premium channel proposal was right for patients, right for doctors, and right for Eyeonics. Aside from doing his home- work, there was another reason he was up to speed on our issues. As a senior member of the Energy and Commerce Committee (which had jurisdiction over Medicare and HCFA), he had been a long-time advocate for Medicare reform. Not only did this help us gain his atten- tion, but it also meant he could get the attention of the leadership at HCFA. The fact that he was one of the elected leaders of the House of Representatives didn't hurt either. He understood the HCFA was opposing us because Medicare was constantly trying to meet budget demands by cutting back its cover- age. He felt strongly that in this in- stance, HCFA's cost-saving instincts were leading them the wrong way because Eyeonics wasn't even asking for additional patient reimburse- ment. Rather, patients were actually being deprived of the opportunity to purchase a premium product with their own money—a lens that Medicare itself wouldn't pay for. Rep. Cox went straight to the top, engaging the administrator of HCFA. At fi rst Rep. Cox was polite, laying out the facts dispassionately. Both Medicare and the patients would be better off, he said, because at no additional cost to the taxpayers, the premium lens would eliminate the need for glasses after cataract sur- gery. Medicare would pay nothing extra, and it would no longer have to pay for eyeglasses. But after 4 months with no satisfactory result, Rep. Cox com- plained to the administrator that it didn't seem [like] he was personal- ly interested in the matter. When another month went by, Rep. Cox became very direct. He reminded the administrator of his previous pledges to remove unnecessary regulatory barriers and speed the introduction of new medical devices. He then gave the administrator an ultima- tum: Either change the fl awed reim- bursement policy or help Rep. Cox write legislation to do it if HCFA wouldn't. This did the trick. From that point on, the administrator himself became personally engaged, and things started moving quickly. Once immersed in the details, the admin- istrator became not just a reluctant collaborator but [also] an energetic leader of the effort. He invited Rep. Cox and Eyeonics to provide HCFA a thorough legal analysis, which would form the basis for the CMS staff to write the new rules. On May 3, 2005, Medicare en- acted a landmark new policy. Ruling No. 05-01 created what is known to- day as the "premium IOL channel." Under this ruling, cataract patients eligible for Medicare can upgrade from a monofocal lens to a premium refractive lens, as long as they are willing to pay the additional cost. The CMS ruling of 2005 would not have happened without this extraordinary collaboration between Eyeonics and our Congressman. It was a watershed moment in the history of ophthalmology because from this day forward, patients could choose the technologies that were best for them. It also created a new market in which breakthrough technologies and treatments could thrive. EW Contact information Clayman: hclayman@med.miami.edu Corley: yelroc1@me.com Olson: RandallJ.Olson@hsc.utah.edu It never hurts continued from page 12 Andy Corley and Christopher Cox Source: Andy Corley

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