Licensing of LASIK centers proposed

Thursday, May 10, 2001 | 9:51 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- An Assembly committee Wednesday approved a proposal requiring licensing and bonding of unregulated centers that conduct a popular laser eye surgery.

The Assembly Health and Human Services Committee Wednesday agreed to an amendment by Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, who complained of "fly-by-night LASIK companies that operate for a while, go bankrupt, pick up stakes and leave their patients and prospective patients in the lurch with the deposits not refunded and no follow-up medical care."

Titus said many LASIK surgeries are performed by skilled doctors in facilities attached to doctors' offices. These are regulated by the state Health Division.

"Some procedures, however, are performed by doctors on contract in surgery centers, which simply house the laser machines, often in rather make-shift storefront facilities," she said. "Unfortunately, these offices do not meet the current definition of surgery centers and are, therefore, not regulated at all. They simply have to get a business license."

The Titus amendment is attached to Senate Bill 483, a bill to require regulation of mobile health units.

"This amendment protects the public's health, their eyes and their pocketbooks," she said.

LASIK is an acronym for the medical terminology "laser in situ keratomileusis."