Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Queasy Feeling - April 2017 - Subscribe to Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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HOPDs can end up on the hook for the full cost. Well aware of such concerns, Omeros offers a patient-assistance program to help over- come financing difficulties. However the process is a lot of work, says a director of surgical services in New England. One other note: drug prices typically drop significantly once their pass-through status has expired. "Shugarcaine" (compounded epinephrine and lidocaine), the most popular intra-operative alternative, is much less expensive, but needs to be delivered as a bolus at the beginning of the case, because it gradually wears off as surgery progresses. This product is only available from compounding labs; it has not gone through FDA's demanding pre-market approval process. "Reliable and predictable," is how Ms. Dayton describes it. "But since ASCs are not allowed to mix their own anymore, we've had to resort to purchasing it from a compounding pharmacy, which has increased our cost." But, she says, the price increase turned out to be worth it for her surgeons' peace of mind. When the price went up, "they tried using it only for stubborn pupils. It took them only one day to realize how much they depend on it and how much they missed it. We now use it on every cataract case." OSM 1 1 2 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • A P R I L 2 0 1 7

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