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Competing factions in
laser eye surgery give
patients more options

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By Tim Ruel
Star-Bulletin

Customers of the new laser eye surgery office off Kapiolani Boulevard may like what they see when they get their bills.

Lasik Vision Corp., a fast-growing Canadian chain of laser refractive eye surgery centers, kicked off Hawaii operations on Monday by offering surgery on both eyes for a total of $999 to the first thousand customers. When the offer runs out, the price of the surgery on both eyes rises to $1,998, still roughly half that of many of its local competitors.

One of those competitors -- Dr. Carlos Omphroy, a private-practice surgeon in Mililani -- said he does not expect Lasik Vision's low prices to cut into his operations, since he has already reached clients who are willing to pay higher prices for his service.

Rather, Omphroy said, Lasik Vision's arrival could pump up interest in the surgery. The bottom line is patients should choose doctors with whom they are comfortable, and not focus on price, he said.

Several local ophthalmologists, including Omphroy, regularly use the so-called Lasik procedure, which corrects nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism, and charge a total of between $3,000 to $4,000 for both eyes.

Lasik Vision said it keeps prices down by not paying for referrals, by owning its lasers, and by driving down costs with volume.

In Hawaii, Lasik Vision's full-time ophthalmologist is Dr. David Badawi, who has done more than 100 Lasik procedures. Badawi said he joined Lasik Vision a month ago after completing a year-long refractive surgery fellowship at Emory University in Atlanta while he worked at the Emory Vision Correction Center. Before that, Badawi did his residency at University of California, Los Angeles, and went to medical school at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Omphroy contends Lasik Vision can cut costs because it employs doctors who are relatively new to the procedure.

"That's a pretty gross generalization, isn't it?" responded Patty Seder, Lasik Vision's marketing director for the Western United States.

She defended the experience of Lasik Vision's surgeons and said that about 6 percent of the chain's patients have their surgery redone, slightly better than the industry standard.

Badawi said concerns about Lasik Vision often come from surgeons who get upset when someone else cuts prices.

Seder said the company's lower price is not a reflection on the quality of care but is simply meant to sway customers from competitors in each market the company enters.

Established in mid-1997, the Vancouver, British Columbia-based chain runs 32 clinics in Canada and the United States, and plans to open from 10 to 15 more by 2001. The company now occupies the 16th floor -- about 8,500 square feet -- of the Pacific Park Plaza on Curtis Street in Kakaako.

Seder said competitors often drop their prices when the publicly held company enters the market.

On Oahu, Pan-Pacific Laser Eye Institute -- owned by another Canadian-based chain -- has already cut its price for vision-correction surgery to $749 per eye from $999, at least until the end of the year.

A Pan-Pacific executive said the company isn't worried about Lasik Vision, however.

"Basically, when you're on top, you don't worry about the competition," said Milad Estivan, the local marketing director.

Competition between two low-priced chains can be fierce, according to Omphroy. "It's like two jackals fighting over the piece of meat, and the lioness gets the rest of the animal," he said.

But other smaller laser surgery centers may suffer from the hunt for customers, he said.

"I think it will put a strain on a lot of the places that are probably not doing very big volume right now," Omphroy said. After all, the equipment alone costs up to $600,000.

Omphroy performs the surgeries along with Dr. Tyrie Lee Jenkins at the Laser Eye Institute of Hawaii, which is also on Kapiolani. Their price for both eyes is $4,000.

Together, they have done more than 7,000 Lasik corrections since 1996, the most in Hawaii, and continue to do 230 to 250 each month, he said.

In contrast, St. Francis Medical Center, which bought its own laser and opened a Laser Eye Center in January, said it has done an average of roughly 10 surgeries a month. St. Francis charges $3,000 for both eyes.

In response to the increasing competition, St. Francis is catering to customers who want the surgery done at a hospital.

Still, Hawaii's other small laser centers shouldn't sweat over Lasik Vision's arrival, Omphroy said.

"Most of the good surgeons don't want to get into a bidding war, because it sort of trivializes what they're doing. We've done that with cataract surgery."