3 ms·

I imagine with breaks, lack of 100% focus and efficiency, and employment benefits it's probably $2-$3 in labor costs per test if you're right on the time requir

I imagine with breaks, lack of 100% focus and efficiency, and employment benefits it's probably $2-$3 in labor costs per test if you're right on the time required and average salary. So, I think possibly multiples of what you quoted, but still so low that it's not likely to affect the cost much. Then again, with the people to move the samples around (process and sort mail), clean/sterilize testing materials after testing, and manage the people that perform the tests, and do quality testing, you might see another $1-$2 per test in labor costs. So maybe $5 in labor all said? My bet is that the most expensive part of the process is the machines to do the tests, which likely cost multiples of a lab tech's salary (but maybe can do multiple tests at once? I dunno). A sibling comment upthread noted that Maryland got 500k tests for $18 each, which sounds like it's probably close to cost, if it's the same test. That number of tests would be about full time work for 400 lab technicians for 5 days if they averaged just under two minutes a test.

three_seagrass 7y ago
Sure, for a routine clinical lab at your local hospital, but Labcorp is one of the largest ancillary lab networks in the world. I would be surprised if they haven't automated or processed out most of the manual labor for sample to diagnostic test.
- kbenson 7y ago
  For the extra labor I was referring to people actually receiving the mail, opening it and getting the samples into whatever tracking they have. My guess is that there's still real people doing that step, since a machine that can do that reliably and not screw up and/or contaminate systems with the weirdness they get in the mail is probably on the order of a machine that can accurate pick items out of bind in Amazon warehouses (or harder), and Amazon has thrown a lot of money at that just to find it's a lot harder than it seems. Even if it's just people receiving the mail and throwing it into a bin that's delivered to a specific lab tech, that still takes people. The other labor was really just going by your own numbers. Beyond that, there's still the layers of management above, that while there are physically less of them likely, their pay scales higher as well.

three_seagrass 7y ago

Sure, for a routine clinical lab at your local hospital, but Labcorp is one of the largest ancillary lab networks in the world. I would be surprised if they haven't automated or processed out most of the manual labor for sample to diagnostic test.

kbenson 7y ago
For the extra labor I was referring to people actually receiving the mail, opening it and getting the samples into whatever tracking they have. My guess is that there's still real people doing that step, since a machine that can do that reliably and not screw up and/or contaminate systems with the weirdness they get in the mail is probably on the order of a machine that can accurate pick items out of bind in Amazon warehouses (or harder), and Amazon has thrown a lot of money at that just to find it's a lot harder than it seems. Even if it's just people receiving the mail and throwing it into a bin that's delivered to a specific lab tech, that still takes people. The other labor was really just going by your own numbers. Beyond that, there's still the layers of management above, that while there are physically less of them likely, their pay scales higher as well.