How many patients does it take to pay off an OCT?

One of the dilemmas about seeing a return on investment on an OCT is dependent upon the population base you have, the accessibility to medical plans, and the level of activity of your office.

In general, there is at most a 5% prevalence of any kind of eye disease and a 4-9% prevalence in a systemic disease in the general population. Can you use the OCT enough to get a payback of fewer than 12 months?

Secondly, Are you willing to bill the patient for an "out-of-pocket" expense if there is no medical problem detected? You might need to "sell" the use of the OCT as a baseline test just like you would a fundus photo.

Lastly, Do you know the number of glaucoma, diabetes, and AMD patients necessary to provide sufficient activity for your OCT?. Here is a quick estimation of the value of a patient per year for each kind of disease if you had 4000 total patients drawn randomly from the general population

(1) Glaucoma - twice a year - $75 x 120 OAG's = $9,000

(2) AMD - twice a year - $75 x 200 AMDs = $15,000

(3) Diabetes - twice a year x 200 DMs $15,000

Total $39,000 potential paid amounts from claims, both eyes.

Lets' assume that you are an average practice that sees 50 per week x 4 = 200 x 12 = 2400 patients /year

You can see that you would need at least 4,000 patients per year running through your practice in order to pay off the OCT within two years.

Note: The content within this post is neither medical, legal, or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional for your specific circumstance. It is my personal opinion and does not reflect the opinion of my employer. This also is not a solicitation. The estimated fee of $75.00 is for both eyes and is based on the general fees from the CMS fee schedule lookup tool.

Reference: Jonas, J. B., Weber, P., Nagaoka, N., & Ohno-Matsui, K. (2017). Glaucoma in high myopia and parapapillary delta zone. PloS one, 12(4), e0175120. Image

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