I’ve been thinking about an eye surgery for some time, and last November I finally made my choice. I of course googled around for some time and asked people about their experiences – it is a big thing to mess with one’s vision after all. There were bad experiences when looking for information online, but all the persons I have asked directly had positive feelings about the progress and they encouraged me to go forward. Of course there are always risks involved, but it’s amazing how the risks are emphasized online.
I trusted my friends and the modern medical science and started comparing the offerings. There are many service providers both in Finland and the nearby countries, but I went for the Finnish surgery services. It’s supposed to be safer this way, but who knows what would happen if the shit would have hit the fan…it’s business after all.
Price comparison
Well I started to compare the prices, and the surprise hit me – they all cost the same!! This felt like they have made a deal between the companies and agreed on the price .Usually there is a bit of price war between the service providers as the product is the same, but not here (the word cartel came into my mind). It’s really hard to compare the prices as the whole package consists of these elements:
- the surgery itself
- initial examination
- control prices
- service fees per visit
- KELA insurance (some support from the government)
There is no mention about how many times you have to go to a control – for me it was 4 times, but I had some problems with one eye, but still I’d say the normal is 4 times (my fourth time was not after 6 months but the doctor said it was close enough to that so I did not have to do the 6 month visit):
- the next day
- after 1 month
- after 3 months
- after 6 months
Here are some prices in a table, compare for yourself:
| Provider | Surgery | Initial exam | Control fee | Service fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Terveystalo | 3200 | 180 | 75 | 13.50 |
| Mehiläinen | 3229.50 | 260 | 75-110 | 11.50 |
| Silmäsairaala | 3240 | 195 | 55-66 | 9.50 |
It might seem like these prices do differ a lot (not perhaps the surgery but the other sums), but then the KELA insurance suport steps in…
Initial exams
With Mehiläinen the KELA support for the initial exam is 161.08€ so the price you pay is actually 98.92€. For Terveystalo the initial exam costs 180€ and you get 81.71€ from KELA (this is how much I got). There is no notice how much the KELA gives you from Silmäsairaala for the eye surgery – they have a field to put KELA support in their pricelist but no mentions about it regarding the eye surgery (so you might not get it at all, or then just a small sum).
I really think the initial fees after the KELA for these companies are all around 100€ and to that they will of-course add the service fee.
Control fee + service fee
For a complete package there will be 4 controls and adding them together we will have a sum between 220€-440€ and then the service fees on top of that 38€-54€. The control fees seem like the place to get some differentiation to these but then KELA steps in to mess is all up. The difference in the KELA insurance for the initial exam is between 80€ and 160€, so it will probably even up the control fees aswell.
I do not know how much it is for Mehiläinen or Silmäsairaala, but for Terveystalo it is 16.20€.
Wrapping it up
I went to Terveystalo and I am really happy with the result and service they gave me. My wife went to another hospital and she got great service too and she is happy. I have other friends that have been to other hospitals, and they all are happy.
Seems like everyone is happy: the companies have enough clients (there is a constant que, I was in a que for 2 months), the clients are happy with the outcome (they can see without glasses) and it does not matter where the clients go as the prices are the same all around. The clients should be happy – no-one get’s a better deal than you, right?
If you have been to either of the other companies listed above, of some other company, please comment to this post and fill me in with the missing parts of especially KELA support so that we can compare the prices for real and see if there is a difference. Thanks.
Tags: eyesurgery, femtolasik, money
