Dry eye care provides practices with growth opportunities

Key takeaways:

• One patient with dry eye can generate $421 in annual revenue for a practice.
• Other ocular conditions may be identified during dry eye visits.

KOLOA, Hawaii — Building a dry eye clinic presents a practice with new opportunities for growth, according to a speaker at Hawaiian Eye 2025.

Marguerite B. McDonald, MD, FACS, said there are a lot of office visits involved in a dry eye practice, providing opportunities to catch other ocular conditions such as seasonal allergies, myopia, diabetic retinopathy and more. Dry eye care can also drive patient referrals.

“I am convinced, without any supporting data, that a happy dry eye patient refers more patients to the practice than a happy postop cataract or LASIK patient because they are so used to being ignored for a long time,” McDonald said.

With all the visits a patient with dry eye needs, McDonald said the total annual revenue per patient is $421. A typical practice of five to seven doctors should be able to bring in about 1,500 patients with dry eye disease, which means more than $631,000 in gross revenue from dry eye evaluations alone, she said.

When tear osmolarity testing, punctal plug insertion and meibomian gland dysfunction procedures are combined with all the other potential ocular conditions that arise in these patients, it could lead to more than $1.2 million in total net collections, she said.

To develop a dry eye center, McDonald said the first step is to educate and train the team. The practice also has to manage patients proactively and efficiently, develop a targeted marketing plan and promote its commitment to dry eye treatment.

Practices can call on the help of industry, which will have literature and marketing materials for their products, McDonald said.

“Developing a dry eye clinic is a wonderful thing,” she said.

Published by:

Sources/Disclosures

Collapse

Source:

McDonald M. Can a dry eye practice be profitable? Presented at: Hawaiian Eye 2025; Jan. 18-24, 2025; Koloa, Hawaii.

Disclosures:
McDonald reports having disclosures for AbbVie, Alcon, Bausch + Lomb, Brill Pharma, Johnson & Johnson Vision, Nordic Pharma, Ocuphire Pharma, Oculus USA, OCuSOFT, Orca Surgical, PRN, Quidel, Stroma, Sun Pharma and ThermaMEDx.

Read more about

This post was originally published on this site