a procedureCataract surgery

The clouded natural lens is broken up by ultrasound and removed through a small wound, and an artificial lens is folded into the empty capsule. Fifteen or twenty minutes under drops or a local block, one eye at a time, no admission on any page read for this record. *Trade practice —* it is generally counted the highest-volume operation in the world, which is what makes it the one procedure where state tariffs, hospital packages and clinic lists can all be read against each other.

The lens is the knee implant of the eye, and every page read for this record handles it differently.

Bumrungrad in Bangkok sells phacoemulsification for one eye with a monofocal lens at 85,400 baht, package IPDEYE40+IPDEYE4005, prices stated valid until 31 December 2026. Its inclusion list names the surgeon, the hospital and nursing fees for the surgery only, and "Medical device, such as, monofocal lens (only the types specified in the package)". The lens is in — that lens, from that list, in that set. The package is called Set 1.

Rutnin Eye Hospital, a specialist eye hospital in the same city, publishes the terms without a price in its page text and states the rule plainly: "If the ophthalmologist recommends the use of lenses other than those specified in the package, additional charges will apply." Its package also excludes doctor fees, consultation fees and pre-operative evaluation.

The payer versions split it the other way. Ireland's Health Service Executive repays cross-border cataract treatment at the day-case price for DRG C16Z, LENS INTERVENTIONS — €1,171 — a group defined as phacoemulsification or other extraction of the crystalline lens and capsulotomy, with glaucoma procedures excluded from it. Australia's Medicare Benefits Schedule pays item 42702, "Lens extraction and insertion of intraocular lens", at a schedule fee of $910.35, the lens named inside the item and the hospital billed outside it.

Inference — three ways of writing one operation: a Thai package that includes a named lens and excludes the consultation, an Irish reimbursement that names the technique and not the device, and an Australian fee that names both and pays for neither the theatre nor the bed. The comparison a reader wants — what does a cataract cost — has no single answer on any of them, and the lens is where the difference hides.

Drops, a small wound at the edge of the cornea, an opening in the front of the lens capsule, ultrasound to break the lens, aspiration, the folded implant injected into the capsule where it unfolds. Drops for several weeks afterwards, and a check the next day. Second eye usually weeks later, which for a patient who flew in means either two trips or a longer stay; none of the pages read here prices the pair.

The lens tier is the variable that moves the price. A monofocal implant corrects distance and leaves reading glasses; toric lenses correct astigmatism and multifocal or extended-depth lenses aim to reduce glasses altogether, at higher prices. The Australian item descriptor also draws the line that matters for the rest of this batch: it excludes "surgery performed to correct a refractive error", which is how a state that pays for a cataract lens declines to pay for laser vision correction.

As of 17 September 2026 one eye with a monofocal lens is published at 85,400 baht in Bangkok; Ireland repays cross-border cataract treatment at a day-case DRG price of €1,171; and the Australian schedule fee for lens extraction with an intraocular lens is $910.35. Each of those numbers counts a different set of things.

This page describes an operation and the prices published for it. It is not medical advice.