a company that promises to provide private, at-home covid-19 testing is being criticized by physicians as “pandemic profiteering” and “ suspicious .”
for an “introductory price” of $399 a person, plus an additional fee of $329 for every additional person in the same household, home covid-19 private (hcp) diagnostics says it will travel to any person within toronto and the greater toronto area, collect a sample, and send it for pcr testing of covid-19 rna in one of its “accredited labs.”
the ontario ministry of health told healthing: “ ontario continues to assess and evaluate testing technologies for covid-19. the government is not authorizing private at home out-of-ohip testing at this time.”
and therein lies the rub. assuming that everything we have read about home covid-19 private (hcp) diagnostics is true — and none of it has been confirmed — people who can afford the $400 price tag are the least likely to need the test. we know that low-income populations are most likely to get covid-19 . they are more likely to work in precarious, essential service occupations that have more high exposure risk to the virus, and less likely to have paid sick leave that allows them to stand in lines for hours to be tested. they are also the same people who are least likely to be able to afford the pricey in-home test.
advertisement
it is also unknown if this new lab has obtained the licence required by the laboratory and specimen collection centre licensing act to both collect specimens and maintain and operate a laboratory to conduct tests — a concern that has been echoed by physicians .
nowhere in ontario do have a limitless supply of re-agents for testing. by prioritizing asymptomatic, wealthy patients, what are they doing to that supply? what does this say about our philosophical approach & who matters in our pandemic response?
— danyaal raza (@danyaalraza) september 22, 2020
4/n
cost is another issue doctors are questioning, asking whether it is being billed through ohip, what infrastructure is being used to liaise results from a private company with provincial data reports, and where they receive their testing supplies, such as nasopharyngeal swabs.
approx. all-in costs per standard np sample and pcr (for lab doing at least 200 tests/day):
— jim woodgett (@jwoodgett) september 22, 2020
reagents ~$30
staff time ~$40 (sample taker, processing)
lab (clia) support costs, rent, util. ~$15
equip. amortization (robotics, etc) $15
total ~$100 (not inc. financing, etc).
advertisement
dduong@postmedia.com
|
@dianaduo
don’t miss the latest on covid-19, reopening and life. subscribe to healthing’s daily newsletter coming out of covid.