|
How much is your medical insurance going to cover?
Better face reality: Your HMO, PPO, Medicare, or any other insurance company is not going to pay for the cost of cosmetic blepharoplasty. By its very definition, "cosmetic" surgery implies surgery undertaken with the primary goal of improving appearance, and such surgery is excluded from coverage.
Some patients believe that if they complain to their doctors that their baggy eyelids are "heavy" or "interfering with vision" that the medical insurance companies will be eager to help them out.
In today's era of "managed care", however, your insurance policy's vague provision stating something to the effect that "significant changes that impact on vision or the health of the eyes" will be considered for coverage is referring to nothing short of the sort of far advanced changes that are found in eighty year old patients.
The most convincing evidence of a substantial problem is best captured on close-up photos that must clearly show the level of severity described above. But even if you are eighty years old and your eyelids really are blocking your vision, there are still more limitations for you to consider:
Insurance companies will allow for only the minimum amount of surgery it takes to eliminate the vision problem (a "functional blepharoplasty"), which is not the same as a complete cosmetic blepharoplasty.
Removal of bulging fat, excess orbicularis muscle, and restoration of the upper eyelid crease are not improvements your insurance carrier is anxious to fund. Thus, even if you are one of the few people who is able to convince your insurance company that you really do NEED to have eyelid surgery, you should realize that you will only be receiving approval for the most basic sort of functional surgery that is unlikely to do much for your looks.
Lower eyelid blepharoplasty is never covered since bulging lower eyelid skin and fat have no easy way of interfering with your vision.
Fortunately, the cost of blepharoplasty eyelid surgery is modest in comparison to the price of face lift, liposuction, or tummy tuck. With plastic surgery financing becoming more mainstream, the procedure is affordable to most.
There are some conditions affecting the eyelids that truly are "problems" and not cosmetic in nature, such as torn muscles and tendons that create true eyelid malposition, interfere with vision, and pose a threat to the integrity of the eye surface. Such conditions should not be confused with dermatochalasis (the formal term for baggy eyelids). True functional conditions of the eyelids are indeed insurance-related expenses, although any allowed correction is usually provided by general ophthalmologists rather than cosmetic eyelid surgeons.
|
