As a retina specialist I inject medicine in the eye for a variety of diseases. Diabetic retinopathy and macular degeneration being the two major disease. The issue is that some of these drugs cant cost as much as $2000 a shot and I have to buy it myself first then get paid by the insurance after I use it. So everytime we inject one of these drugs we have to double and triple check with the insurance that they will pay for the drug or else we will be down $2000. There is a cheaper alternative that I use that cost around $37 which works well for most people but if it was my eye and I needed to get injected I would get the more expensive drug since we have studies that show for diabetic retinopathy it has better results in the first year of use. The drugs also need to be refrigerated, I have a wireless thermomter and a back up battery to make sure the drug is always kept at the right temperature. We are injecting medicine into the eye, this is serious stuff and Im not taking any risks.
Currently I am the only retina specialist in Frisco which means I am the only one offering this treatment. Right now its easy to keep track of the meds but in the future I may have to invest in an inventory system to keep track of this stuff.
