Golfers For Cataracts

Not all of us have Danny Noonan to carry our bag down the fairway and track our wayward slices. The #1 question that eye doctors knowns as ophthalmologists get from male and some female patients who are about to get cataract surgery is, not surprisingly, ‘how soon after can I play golf….’

What is often not discussed is just how important the surgery is for these golf-obsessed seniors who don’t hit it quite as straight and can’t see the ball off the tee like they used to. Many say that without golf, they got into a dark cave of depression - that golf, even triple bogeys and 3-putts, “is their therapy".”

A Medicare Advantage insurance plan’s utilization analyst, Mary Kellogg, says the plan is studying cataract utilization trends and related factors, like surgery by gender, climate and even something as obscure as whether the patient is an avid golfer. ‘Do they need it to see the ball better, or do they need it to drive to the course…two different things’.

While it seems unlikely that an insurer would deny a person cataract surgery there is some evidence that this can happen. One insurer, Aetna, had a policy a few years ago for a short time where they required doctors and patients to get pre approval. Part of the challenge is that so many people get these surgeries - nearly 4 million in the U.S., each year, nearly twice that in Europe. The policy is not in place now but it was a signal to people that not every cataract surgery is necessary.