Economics of Point of Care Testing for the Solo Practitioner

[StevenRF]

I'm interested in learning more about POCT and cost effectiveness, especially in the setting of a solo practitioner for general medicine and flight physicals. I'm in the beginning stages of drawing up a business plan for a solo non insurance clinic. The clinic in my residency has a POCT urinalysis which is extremely useful, and makes turnaround so quick, but from web prices runs around $3-4k.

In my mind I'm imaging something like a single room office, out of my home if I can find an area where zoning would permit, where I can spend the extra time per patient, perform some of there basic testing, phlebotomy, xray's myself. Some of the equipment I've seen is relatively cheap compared to hospital grade equipment, and can be linked to a computer/EMR, like a bluetooth ECG for example. In some ideal world I could get unit pricing for equipment and potential reimbursement to run the numbers for each possible test. However, that information isn't the most accessible. Potentially considering some of the basics... CBC, lytes, lft's, UA, FLP, ECG.

From a marketing perspective, having more of a one stop shop and pricing transparency should add some value, but whether or not the $ earned per time spent on testing justifies things is uncertain. Anyone have some experiences in this realm to share?

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[FamilymedMD]

Our group looked hard at the Piccolo analyzer for CLIA waived testing. They were willing to discount the testing unit significantly but this is because the supplies are expensive. We would make very little, if anything, on each test and would have probably lost money considering staff costs, etc. Now as a cash practice you can charge whatever you want but this wouldn't allow you to offer inexpensive labs.

If you have one or two partners, then a used chemistry analyzer and a lab tech independent contractor is the way to go. The marginal costs on most common labs is very low so you could offer low cost labs to your patients and still come out ahead. If you decide to offer direct practice memberships, you could bundle inoffice labs as part of the membership, increasing the value of your practice to the patients at little cost to you.

Good luck, this is definitely worth exploring.