Short answer: At Focus Vision in Brisbane, refractive lens exchange (RLE) is from $6,000 per eye ($12,000 for both eyes), all-inclusive: your assessments, the premium lens, hospital and anaesthetist fees, the surgery and a year of follow-up appointments (costs page). Medicare doesn’t pay for RLE, because the Medicare item for lens surgery excludes surgery to correct a refractive error (MBS item 42702), and private health funds generally don’t either. One practical advantage of RLE is that both eyes can usually be done on the same day, with one recovery period.
Refractive lens exchange replaces the eye’s natural lens with an artificial one to reduce your need for glasses, including reading glasses. It is the same operation as cataract surgery, done before a cataract has formed. This guide covers what it costs, what’s included, why Medicare and health funds don’t contribute, and how same-day surgery on both eyes works. For who suits RLE and how the lens options compare, see our guide to refractive lens exchange.
What RLE costs at Focus Vision
| Per eye | Both eyes | |
|---|---|---|
| Refractive lens exchange, all-inclusive | from $6,000 | from $12,000 |
What’s included:
- All pre-operative assessments and eye measurements
- Your premium intraocular lens: for example an extended depth of focus (EDOF), multifocal or toric lens, chosen with your surgeon
- Hospital and theatre fees
- The anaesthetist’s fee
- The surgery itself
- A year of follow-up appointments
- Laser fine-tuning, if your vision needs it once stable, free for two years under our enhancement policy
What’s extra: prescribed medications and eye drops, which you buy separately so that eligible prescriptions can attract PBS subsidies.
Your first steps: your first assessment with our optometrist is free. You then see a specialist surgeon for a paid consultation to confirm suitability and plan your surgery; the consultation fee is deducted from the surgery price if you go ahead.
When you compare quotes from different clinics, check whether the anaesthetist, the lens, the hospital fees and follow-up visits are included, or added later.
Why Medicare doesn’t pay for RLE
Medicare pays for lens surgery under MBS item 42702: “lens extraction and insertion of intraocular lens, excluding surgery performed to correct a refractive error, other than anisometropia that exceeds 3 dioptres and develops after the removal of cataract in the first eye” (MBS item 42702).
In plain English: Medicare covers lens surgery to treat a cataract, but not lens surgery done to correct short-sightedness, long-sightedness, astigmatism or the need for reading glasses. The one exception is narrow: after cataract surgery on one eye, if the two eyes are left very different in strength (more than 3 dioptres), lens surgery on the second eye to balance them is covered. There is no separate Medicare item for refractive lens exchange.
If you have a cataract, things are different. Cataract surgery is Medicare-eligible, and private hospital cover that includes the Cataracts clinical category pays towards it (privatehealth.gov.au). At Focus Vision, premium cataract surgery is $2,500 to $5,500 per eye, depending on your health insurance and lens choice (costs page). Your surgeon will tell you at your assessment whether you have a cataract.
Why private health insurance doesn’t pay
Private hospital cover in Australia is organised into clinical categories defined by Medicare items. The government’s rules assign MBS items delivered as hospital treatment to a clinical category, and each tier of cover (Basic, Bronze, Silver, Gold) must include certain categories (Private Health Insurance (Complying Product) Rules, explanatory statement). The Cataracts category covers “hospital treatment for surgery to remove a cataract and replace with an artificial lens” (privatehealth.gov.au).
Because RLE for refractive reasons has no Medicare item, it doesn’t fall within hospital cover, and health funds generally don’t pay benefits for it. Rules for a few individual policies may differ, so check with your fund using your membership number. A few top-tier policies pay towards laser eye surgery (see Bupa and Medibank); Bupa’s laser eye benefit, for example, excludes lens implants for eye correction (privatehealth.gov.au).
Having both eyes done on the same day
Because RLE is paid privately and planned in advance, both eyes can usually be treated in the same visit: the first eye, then the second, as two completely separate procedures. This is known as immediately sequential bilateral surgery. Advantages for you:
- One trip to hospital and one anaesthetic, rather than two
- One recovery period, so less time off work and fewer days without clear vision in both eyes
- No weeks of imbalance between a treated eye and an untreated one
- Fewer appointments overall
What the evidence shows. Most research on same-day surgery comes from cataract surgery, which is the same operation:
- A 2022 Cochrane review found a very low risk of serious eye infection (endophthalmitis) whether both eyes were done on the same day or on separate days, and that same-day surgery probably makes little or no difference to the final prescription (Dickman et al., 2022).
- In the US IRIS Registry, infection rates were 0.059% of eyes after same-day surgery and 0.056% after separate-day surgery, a difference that was not significant (Lacy et al., 2022).
- Same-day surgery has also been studied specifically in refractive lens exchange patients (Hannan et al., 2023).
The trade-offs. With same-day surgery, the surgeon can’t use the first eye’s result to fine-tune the lens choice for the second eye, and if a complication such as infection occurred, it could in theory affect both eyes. That is why the two eyes are treated as separate sterile procedures, and why same-day surgery isn’t right for everyone. Your surgeon will advise whether it suits your eyes, or whether doing them on separate days is better.
The price is per eye, so having both eyes on the same day doesn’t change the surgery cost; it reduces the time and travel involved.
Paying for RLE
You can pay upfront, or spread the cost with a loan from a third-party provider: Focus Vision accepts humm. Focus Vision does not provide finance or receive commission from humm. See Paying for laser eye surgery for how it works and what to check before you borrow.
RLE compared with the alternatives
| Procedure | Price per eye (all-inclusive) | Usually suits |
|---|---|---|
| Refractive lens exchange | from $6,000, including the anaesthetist | Presbyopia (needing reading glasses), usually from the 50s; high long-sightedness |
| Laser Blended Vision (LASIK) | from $4,250 | Presbyopia in the 40s, sometimes the 50s, with healthy corneas |
| Implantable contact lens (ICL) | from $7,000, including the anaesthetist | High prescriptions in younger adults, before presbyopia |
Prices are from our costs page. For how to choose between them, see Which eye surgery is best for me? and How to get rid of reading glasses.
To find out whether RLE suits your eyes and get your exact cost, book a free optometrist assessment or call (07) 3239 5005.
This article is general information only and is not medical, insurance or financial advice.
References
- Australian Government Department of Health. Medicare Benefits Schedule, Item 42702. MBS Online. www9.health.gov.au
- Australian Government. Clinical categories. privatehealth.gov.au. privatehealth.gov.au/health_insurance/howitworks/clinical_categories.htm
- Private Health Insurance (Complying Product) Amendment Rules, explanatory statement. Federal Register of Legislation. 2024. legislation.gov.au/F2024L00179
- Bupa HI Pty Ltd. Gold Ultimate Health Cover: Private Health Information Statement (Queensland). privatehealth.gov.au. privatehealth.gov.au/dynamic/Download/BUP/J1/QAXA2D
- Dickman MM, et al. Immediate sequential bilateral surgery versus delayed sequential bilateral surgery for cataracts. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2022;(4):CD013270. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35467755
- Lacy M, Kung TH, Owen JP, et al. Endophthalmitis rate in immediately sequential versus delayed sequential bilateral cataract surgery within the IRIS Registry data. Ophthalmology. 2022;129(2):129-138. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8755857
- Hannan SJ, Schallhorn SC, Venter JA, Teenan D, Schallhorn JM. Immediate sequential bilateral surgery in refractive lens exchange patients: clinical outcomes and adverse events. Ophthalmology. 2023;130(9):924-936. doi:10.1016/j.ophtha.2023.04.013. doi.org/10.1016/j.ophtha.2023.04.013