Weill Cornell Eye Associates

I’ve been seeing various doctors here for almost two years now. I guess my primary physician is Dr. Sippel who has referred me to other doctors in the practice with various specialties (glaucoma, retinal, optometry etc.) including Dr. Rafla & Dr Gia Lee. All the doctors at this practice who I’ve seen are knowledgeable and their bedside manner is quite good. They take their time examining you and answering questions. Perhaps that’s the reason for the long wait time mentioned in other reviews? The techs are a little more abrupt but I’m sure that’s because they have to process patients for multiple doctors. The offices are clean and modern.
You can expect your entire visit, depending on what you’re there for to run about an hour and a half to two hours. A typical ophthalmologist visit goes like this for me. First a tech will see you and run preliminary tests on your eyes and dilate your eyes if necessary. Then you’ll be placed in an inner waiting area, the time you wait here depends on how long it takes your eyes to dilate. Then an ophthalmologist resident will bring you into an examination room and conduct a thorough exam. By the time the doctor sees you, they’ve already reviewed all the information collected by the tech and the resident. They will also examine your eyes and may do so in depth if they feel something needs to be more closely examined.
In terms of costs, besides my copay, I’ve gotten one bill from them for $ 34 over the last two years.
I highly recommend this practice.

I cannot begin to express my gratitude to the team of Kimberly C. Sippel, MD who helped my fiancé during difficult times. Due to ocular GVHD, he had severe corneal dry patches and dry eye symptoms (similar to Sjögren’s Syndrome) that were extremely painful and ruining his quality of life. He was not getting the sufficient amount of attention from Sloan Kettering so we were in dire need of a full-​time team of dry eye ophthalmologists to take over his case.
Pros:
* Weill Cornell is very busy and popular so it took a bit of persistence to get secure an appointment as early as possible. I had to keep calling and explaining the severity of the case.
* Exceptional service. We could immediately tell that the doctors at Weill Cornell Eye Associates are genuinely caring and warm. Even when we had a differing opinion they would take the time to listen and discuss the pros and cons. They insisted he came every day and on weekends to make sure his eyes healed well.
* Sometimes you can wait over 1 hr past your appointment time, but staff would continuously come over to apologize for the wait.
* Very beautiful, modern and clean offices equipped with the latest technology.
* Dr. Sippel and Dr. Michelle N. Lee, OD had my fiancé try out the PROSE contact lens for a week and his corneal ulcers healed dramatically in under a week! After 7 days his eyes were fully healed (although he still has to use Refresh PM drops and gel at night).
Thank you again for the phenomenal care and service!

Last week I went in for a routine eye exam and never expected to be WOWED. It was a Friday afternoon and from the moment I walked in, I was treated like I was the first patient of the day.
Enter scene… Technician Arti! Arti was warm, professional, appropriately humorous and informative. More importantly, she was thorough and practically saved my life. She detected that I have very narrow drainage channels (not visible to the naked eye) and made the decision not dialate my eyes. Had she not been this thorough; the dilation of my eyes would’ve potentially induced acute angular glaucoma — which can potentially cause blindness.
I spent several days feeling absolutely indebted to Arti… who has life saving expertise and a kind heart. Who knew a technician could save ones life!!! Now I know. I’ll be forever grateful that Arti takes great pride in her craft. She literally saved my eyes!
Also to be noted, I like my Doctor too — Dr. Levine. He is very patient and explains things in simple terms. Outstanding staff — so happy this is my eye place :)

Doctor/​service = GOOD/​GREAT. Cost/​insurance practices = BAD.
DOCTOR: I’ll start with the good. The doctor I saw, once I finally got in to see her, was good and effective. She was able to diagnosis the issue I had (keratitis), and was willing to answer the questions I had about it. She was also willing to tell me when she couldn’t a question (e.g. will this come back?). She wrote me an Rx for steroid eye drops and instructed me to stop wearing my contacts for a week. During the follow up appointment she checked everything, and then gave me detailed instructions about how to gradually get back into wearing contacts again.
WAIT: this wait is LONG. You’ll be seen by a tech first, who will do basic checks and put all of the information into your file. Then, you’ll be lead into a waiting room in the back, and that can take upwards of an hour. The first time I waited was close to that, and I think the second time I waited back there was 30 minutes. So yeah, long wait.
COST/​INSURANCE PRACTICES: I had a $ 20 co-​pay both times I went (was a little perturbed I had to pay it again for what was a 5 minute follow up that was somewhat unnecessary as the keratitis had completely cleared up by that point). But fine. When I’d researched this doctor, it was because I’d found her in the list of my insurance’s «in network» doctors. This is important as I’m a 3^rd year law student and don’t start my job until September after I take the bar exam in July. So, out-​of-​pocket cost is a big factor for me. When I checked out after the follow up, they asked for my co-​pay and gave me zero warning as to what was coming for me…
About four weeks later I received a bill for $ 380. The total they billed to my insurance for the first appointment was $ 547. My insurance only covered $ 205 of that. The total they billed the second time (for the relatively unnecessary follow up) was $ 267. My insurance covered $ 188. So out of the $ 814 they billed, I paid $ 40 in co-​pays, and my insurance covered $ 394…less than 50% of the cost. I’ve been to many doctors’ offices that warned me once they copied my insurance card and looked into what kind of insurance I had. Nothing like that was done here, which at the very least would’ve influenced whether I’d do the follow up after the condition cleared up in 3 days. So now I have to pay $ 380 out-​of-​pocket when I wasn’t expecting to. Not cool.

Cataract surgery
Just completed second Eye Cataract surgery. I am a 78 years old male in reasonable good health and was experiences blurred vision and it was time. I have been going to a few eye doctors for annual check ups and prescriptions for eye glasses. One was geographic undesirable and another has a office that is a zoo. So I shopped around a bit to select a organization to get cataract surgery. Selected Weill Cornell as result of previous positive experience with other medical services I have received there and its proximity to my home. I could not be more pleased with the outcome. The professional capabilities, and the cooperative caring staff of the organization made everything pleasant. I selected Dr Ciralsky as the surgeon based on a review of her background and her availability to schedule new patients. It was a very fortunate choose. She was very knowledgable, took time to explain everything and kept appointments in a timely manner. One of my pet peeves are medical partitioners who over book and have no regard for patients time, which is not the case here.
Some useful information for those facing the process.
The office is at 70^th St. and York Ave. all exams occur there. The pre and post op visits requires about 7 visits for both eyes. I had to go to my primary physical twice for a pre op approval because the exam has to be with in 30 days of the procedure and my second operation was outside that window. The surgery is done at the hospital across the street on 68 St. I walked in and out in about three hours including all the pre and post op periods for each eye. I experience no pain during and after surgery but my eyes were a little teary after, felt like somebody pocked me and it took about 2 weeks for my right eye to clear because I had a stitch. My left eye cleared in a few days. I am into exercise but my doctor advised me to lay of for the first week after the surgery and gradually work my self up over the next three week to my pre op levels and not go swimming for four weeks
Of course some individuals could experience different issues. I was prescribed four different eye drops for pre and pos op care. My out of pocket drug costs were about $ 220 under my Medicare part D drug coverage (may be different for different plans and I am in the coverage gap stage). I have Medicare and AARP supplement insurance and incurred no other out of pocket costs. AMERICA IS A WONDERFUL PLACE. I selected the Medicare fully covered lenses which in my case resulted in perfect distant vision but I need low power glasses for reading (drug store reading glasses appear fine). I look forward to a clearer brighter future.
Some Silliness.
I was asked to fill out a online survey after my first visit which was totally irrelevant.
The first exam visit and second fitting visit could be combined to save time and money. But perhaps you need to do A to know if you need B and there may be scheduling issues.
I experienced some scheduling bumps in the road but I was pushing to get it done before I went on vacation. My initial visit was ¹¹⁄₁₈ and my last visit was on ¹⁄₁₃.
Having to do two pre op exams because my timing was outside the 30 day window was a waste and some provision should be made to extend the window when there are no other issues.
I had to contact my doctor to get get a prescription for the forth drug which I never originally got. It must have fallen in the crack.
I get my a summary of my Medicare, AARP charges periodically. The surgeon billing for the surgery was $ 7,224 for one eye but she accepted the Medicare approved amount of $ 767.4 as full payment. The hospital charge was $ 7,358.65 and they accepted $ 1,484. This is a mystery to me.
I posted a after picture on Facebook titled LOOK MA NO GLASSES and my friends got a kick out of it.
IF YOU NEED IT I HIGHLY RECOMMEND DR. CIRALSKY AND THE GROUP.
GOOD LUCK

I have seen Dr Star; Dr Rosenblatt and Dr Demetrias. Fine dr. But incredibly disrespectful of one’s time. I generally wait at least an hour to see the Dr

Dr demetriades is treating my glaucoma with laser iridotomy. Great doc. Great bedside manner.
Highly recommend.
Front desk needs more assistance only ever 1 young lady to check in so many people as they arrive.

Went to see Dr Jia Lee regarding a change in my prescriptions. I had been seeing worse (both eyes are different prescription contacts) and, to test, put the stronger contact in my less-​worse eye and it made me see so much better. I explained this to dr. Lee before the exam, but came out with the same prescription I entered with. It made no sense. I was then forced into dilating my eyes. I have never been forced by any other clinic in my life and I’ve visited eye doctors in three other states. Figuring I lived across the street, it was after 5 pm and we all wanted to get home, I thought how bad could it be? I consented. One hour later, a coffee from my husband and many sad stares from higher-​up ophthalmologists, I finally made eye contact with dr. Lee. She had scheduled a patient in between my dilation and review but the patient had macular degeneration and went way longer than expected. I wish I’d been notified so I could have left and come back another time because by the time I was viewed, my eyes were back to normal. I was very upset and felt neglected as a patient. I believe dr. Lee is a very capable and intelligent person; however, she needs to prioritize and practice time management as it would not to have lead to my eyes being misdiagnosed and a waste of my time and money sitting in the waiting room of Weill Cornell Eye Associates.

Dr Edward Lai has been excellent at explaining issues with my eye. He has excellent academic credentials and is current in state of the art medical technology. He takes time to explain options. I would definitely recommend him to my family and friends.

I made an appointment with Dr. Jia Lee, and it was relatively painless to confirm with the office. Dr. Lee is thorough and patient, even if you don’t know all the answers to her questions about your personal and family history. She made me feel at ease about my eye problems and offered tips about what to look out for in case of future issues (I have severe myopia and therefore many risks). She was happy to answer any questions I had about the examination. The appointment did end up going longer than expected, but that’s because Dr. Lee had been addressing the needs of another patient while I had my eyes dilated. If all doctors are as nice and professional as Dr. Lee at Weill Cornell Eye Associates, there would be less complaints!

Weill Cornell Medical College
Weill Cornell Eye Associates
If you are considering LASIK surgery, need an optometrist (Dr Jia Lee from Boston or Dr Wang) or any kind of Ophthalmologist you really must come here.
It’s Cornell, so you should expect and will receive some of the best care anywhere.
They are in a new fancy building on the UES across the street from NY Presbyterian hospital.
If you are looking for a free consultation on LASIK please see some of the nicest doctors ever. Dr Jessica Ciralsky or Dr Ana Alzaga (from Mexico!) have taken such good care of me. I have to admit I was a bit nervous about LASIK (I only have one set of eyes!), but after meeting them I felt so comfortable, that it was a clear choice over some of those other places that I looked into that were a little cheaper, but were seeing a ton of patients every day!
They are busy, which is a good sign, but worth the wait if you have one.
I hope you get to visit them! They are great.