Exploring the Costs of Urgent Care Lab and X-Ray Services
To promptly help patients, urgent care centers must offer lab and x-ray services. This sets them apart from other options like primary care and retail clinics. Centers with these services can treat a wider range of patients.
Traditionally, these services bring in revenue under fee-for-service contracts. Payers pay based on CPT codes, often above Medicare rates. However, many insurers, including Medicare, are moving to flat reimbursements per visit, called “case rates.” Unless specified, this doesn’t consider service level or extra services like x-rays and labs. This may affect a center’s income if lab and x-rays aren’t exempted.
Financial Analysis of Urgent Care Lab & Radiology
Explore income, costs, and assumptions for lab and x-ray services, making informed financial decisions.- Net Revenue: You might assume how many flat-rate visits include lab or x-ray. The center might not have seen them if they didn’t offer these services.
- Supplies & Maintenance: Maintenance, parts, service agreements, and radiation monitoring are covered for X-rays. Labs include costs for tests, kits, and collections.
- Equipment Costs: Piccolo machines and x-ray processors lose value over time. This cost includes financing and lease expenses for equipment you don’t own
- Professional Services: Radiology Over-Read, Send-out Labs
- Tech Salary & Benefits: Fees for X-rays cover payments to radiologists for extra readings, paid by the center. Lab fees include payments to reference labs for tests sent out, also paid by the center.
- Overhead & IT Costs: When hiring lab or x-ray techs, their costs include hourly pay, overtime, vacation, taxes, insurance, and retirement. For other employees, we allocate costs based on time spent on x-ray and lab tasks.
- Physician Time & Incentives: We can estimate how much space labs and x-rays use, divide utility costs fairly by square footage, and split billing and IT costs by collection percentage.
- Direct vs. Indirect Revenue/Costs: Cutting X-ray and Lab Costs
- Staff Management: Some states mandate radiologic technologists (RTs), but in others, medical assistants with basic x-ray certifications suffice, saving on salaries.
- Flexibility: Physicians can take X-rays during slow periods, reducing staffing needs.
- Cross-Training: RTs can learn other roles to stay productive. Lab techs, though rare, can also adapt for cost-efficiency