POCT costs and cost centers

Hello there,
We have a sheet in which the different areas sign out supplies and then we do an internal credit and charge the area for the supplies.  I do not charge for the reagents I used for correlation, validation of lots or any of that. I figure they are using the supplies for their areas.
Hope this helps,
Patty

At my facility the unit pays for and are responsible for their own supplies, and if I do have to purchase on their behalf, I charge it to their cost center. 

HI,
All the POCT supplies are under the lab cost center except the blood gas analyzer in the Cardiac Cath Lab ($$ - expensive)
I have a log that I keep tract of the supplies going out but don't use it shifting charges.
Maybe we should!

Hi Adonica,
Zero products are ordered/supplied to patient care areas by/from the laboratory. Each testing site pays their own way on reagents/controls/supplies.

Non-product expenses incurred for ambulatory POC sites are the CLIA Certificates, original & renewal certificates (plus fees to get a revised certificate after a change in LD, or change of lab address) - in ambulatory the fee coupons are paid by end users of the CLIA. That is not an expense for inpatient testing sites using Pathologist-held CLIAs.
 
Each ambulatory instrument/device used in a limited number of testing sites (eg hemoglobin) is paid for by the clinic. For an instrument (eg A1c) which is more highly used in ambulatory but for which the lab doesn't sign an agreement/contract (eg agreements/contracts are on glucose meter, POC molecular instrument), I work with the manufacturer & distributor to get 'start up' packages where the instrument is included with purchase of a number of reagent kits.  

The ambulatory testing sites pay for all/any data drops, data lines, IT work in order to connect POC devices for the connected tests. I can't speak to the inpatient side who pays. 
Much luck in your quest to find an acceptable model.

To all, 

I have 7 hospitals. Lab pays for all of the supplies and the upkeep for the regulatory requirements. 

The issue is that there is no hard number of testing to be performed/not performed to keep/remove testing from a unit. 

We are starting to remove POCT from units that do not do enough of it for all of their operators to perform patient testing.

This is a rather artificial way to do it especially for ACT that are getting to be more and more rare.  We are cutting down operators in the same manner- instead of 40 people in an ICU...now maybe only charge nurses in ICU for instance. 

Pre-COVID, the nursing idea is that everyone should do everything for POCT. While good for nursing processes, it is outmoded and really non supportable from a lab regulatory perspective.  

Anyone who has any ideas on the number of tests that might need to be performed feel free to post or send me a private e-mail. 

Here at TriCore, the hospitals and clinics purchase all their devices and supplies, and bill for their testing. We bill them for our POCT oversight, since TriCore is a different organization from the testing sites. If we do order/purchase anything for them (we purchase all the proficiency testing) then we bill that back to the hospital/clinic as well. One of our hospital sites does not bill for POCT. The other 2 systems do bill for any POCT that they perform.

Large, multi-hospital system here - the general rule we follow is if the lab cost center gets the revenue (although it may be small), then the lab cost center pays for the supplies.  If the clinical unit that is performing the testing orders their own supplies, then we direct the revenue back to their cost center.  Generally speaking, the first model can work well in small hospitals where it is more feasible for lab/POC to order and distribute supplies; in larger facilities it's generally the second model.  Hospital Lab cost centers generally pay for regulatory/licensure fees.  Manual/kit tests can either have a charge manually entered through the EMR, or (more commonly) not billed at all.  Of note: this setup is based on our current use of Sunquest as our LIS.  We will be transitioning to Epic/Beaker in the next year or so and we have yet to see how we can apply a similar model using Epic.

Hello
each area has a full business case for any POC scheme that includes all reagent / device IQC and EQ and a POC staffing resource. POC then receive supplies and do batch acceptance then cross charge back to the user. As more schemes become available this model is very staffing resource heavy and also any area can ask for audit checks on the finances. How to charge for POC is a hot topic and difficult particular if saving are seen in areas out with the device areas budgetary confines! 

At our facility each unit is responsible for ordering/purchasing their own supplies for POCT.  

We are a large facility with a large POC testing menu.  We pay for all the supplies, but we also get the revenue.  This is because we are providing the extensive oversight for POC testing. This is the only way I can show that we need POC Coordinators based on volumes to support the amount of POC testing we have.

We typically give areas a number of 12-15 a year minimum must be performed.  This number is sometimes higher based on the cost of the particular testing.