3 ms·
The standard treatment protocol is monthly injections on an indefinite schedule; given the prevalence of age-related macular degeneration, it's easy to see how
by HillRat 13y ago
The standard treatment protocol is monthly injections on an indefinite schedule; given the prevalence of age-related macular degeneration, it's easy to see how a clinic in a high-retirement area could profitably optimize to do hundreds of these. Lasik clinics operate on a similar principle. (I'll spare you my argument that medicine is basically the last outpost of the Marxian labor theory of value, but suffice it to say that when capital investments in an industry don't improve profit, then Taylorist labor optimizations will step in to fill the void.)
riahi might be able to answer this -- any idea what the cost is of ranibizumab these days? A single injection used to run about $2K, but I don't know what the price is now.
- riahi 13y agoYes. If you download the April ASP data from CMS [1], you can search for "Ranibizumab injection". CMS has calculated a $397.014 payment per 0.1 mg. Each dose injection is 0.5 mg, so 5 * 397.014 = $1985.07. If you add 6% to that, you get $2104.17. Your memory was correct. 1: http://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Medicare-Fee-for-Service-Part-B-Drugs/McrPartBDrugAvgSalesPrice/2014ASPFiles.html http://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Medicare-Fee-for-Service-Part-B-...