Dhe German laboratory doctors can hardly save themselves from all the work at the moment. Millions of PCR tests have to be processed, the corona crisis is causing unimagined workloads in the laboratories and, in some cases, high profits. But there are also expenses and risks, as Andreas Bobrowski, Chairman of the Association of German Laboratory Doctors, says. Because at the moment nobody can say how long the high demand for tests will last and whether the purchase of expensive devices will pay off.
Basically, there are three different remunerations for the PCR tests, says Bobrowski, who runs his own laboratory in Lübeck with colleagues. The 35 euros per test when billed by the health insurance companies “covered only the bare costs,” he emphasizes. What is left of the 43.56 euros that the state pays for tests it reimburses is urgently needed. After all, you have to keep the staff even in times of lower capacity utilization.
The risk is in the devices
The employees are a great – and very much in demand – asset, emphasizes Bobrowski. For the core tasks, several years of training are necessary. “You can’t show that to someone for a moment,” he emphasizes. Assistants can only be used for unskilled work such as entering data or pasting notes. There are fixed-term contracts for these assistants, but he assumes that there will be no layoffs with the trained laboratory staff after the Corona wave. “We are happy for everyone who stays with us,” says the laboratory doctor.
The risk when purchasing the devices is greater. Depending on the size, it can be in the thousands or in the millions, says Bobrowski. Because the demand is high, the equipment and materials are currently expensive. In addition, large equipment – unlike usual – can hardly be leased. A lab must therefore decide whether it is willing to spend large sums of money on a device that is likely to be underutilized by the time the pandemic ends.
But people are used to dealing with such risks, says Bobrowski. And as long as the remuneration is not reduced further, one can also plan. “I would guess that few will come out negative,” he says.
Synlab benefits
The extent to which Corona can affect the finances of laboratories can be observed, for example, at the Augsburg laboratory chain Synlab, which is listed on the stock exchange. In the first nine months of 2021 – more recent figures are not yet available – the result shot up there, also thanks to income from PCR tests. Sales also increased massively.
But all of that can be over quickly. On November 10, when the current omicron wave was not yet foreseeable, Synlab forecast a drop in sales of several hundred million euros for 2022, partly due to an expected decline in corona tests. That may ultimately turn out differently in view of the development of the pandemic, as some analysts also say. But it makes it clear how quickly business can collapse again.