Thanks Ricardo. My contract states that we have until Nov 15th. Has anyone started using either the Abbott or Cepheid and received reimbursement? If so what are you getting?
By the way, we were promised cartridges for the Abbott IDNOW by the end of Sept and have received none so far. I only know of one practice who got some and they only received 4!
We have yet to receive our Abbott ID NOW
machines or our tests kitsā¦promised to us by the end of Sept or first week in Oct.
Use Sofia 2 tests. I have many ID Now machines, and I even returned 10 boxes of ID Now COVID Tests because 1) No margin 2) Too many invalids 3) Have to wait 15 minutes plus warm up time for each test.
Can you tell us about the invalids? How many invalids do you get per 10 tests? What causes them? Are they just bad cartridges? Do you have to reswab the patients? How long does it take to warm up?
We have had the Abbott ID now machines since 2018. I have been asking for the COVID test for them since April. Finally was contacted by Abbott in July about a contract and was told we would have the kits in house by August. I did not receive the kits till second week in October. It has been a major headache working through the protocol for office. We test in the AM from 8am to 9am each day curbside. Then depending on results they are either telemedicine or return to clinic for Face to Face appointment. We have received reimbursement of $51.33 barely enough to cover the cost of purchase. I will try to post a copy of our protocol and our self pay price if someone chooses to not use insurance to file.
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COVID testing Protocol.docx (129.2 KB) COVID-19 Private Pay.docx (1005.7 KB)
Thanks so much Dr. Buckland for the information and the protocols. I donāt have the kits yet. I know that you batch the tests in the morning so you can triage the visits, but can you also run them throughout the day when kids become symptomatic in the afternoon? How long does it take to warm up the machine? Is it better to run them in batches?
Do you get a lot of inconclusive results like a previous poster? Do you do an anterior nasal swab or a nasopharyngeal swab? Do the swabs come with the kits?
We have been using Alere (Now Abbott) machines since 2017. We do strep, flu, RSV, and COVID. 1) Landed cost of COVID test is 47 dollars. Reimbursement 51. Margin is 4 dollars per test without cost of labor and controls. 2) If there are buggers in the nose and they get into the sample, it gives invalid results. Similar issues for step if kid ate a candy and his throat has something. Plus invalids are generated due to operator error. I had 4 invalids on Tues and Wed all due to buggers. Thatās a loss of $ 188. One box has 24 tests. Profit on 1 box is $96. You do the math. Abbott wants us the kids to blow their nose before we swab. Ha. Ha. 3) The warmup time is 3 minutes. Test takes 10 minutes. If its positive takes 5 minutes. So max min time is 8 to max 13 minutes. So in 1 hour I can do 4 tests.
With Sofia I can do about 15 per hour with one machine. We have had 2 invalids in about 800 tests. We recalibrated the Sofia and I think the problem is gone. Sofia profit is about $25 per test. Its a no brainer. Stop waiting for Abbott. Go for Sofia or BD tests. Sofia is soon coming out with a COVID plus Flu test combo. Same fast results.
Well maybe someday I can be called Dr. Buckland but for now its just Mr. Buckland. We are able to run any test during the day at any time. The warmup is less than a minute and the test takes about 12 minutes or so. Honestly the way things were progressing with positives I kinda thought we were about to be an epicenter in East Texas but things have slowed way down this week. People are calm because symptoms have not been so severe. nasopharyngeal is what that want done and yes the swabs come in the kit. We have six machines so we can run as many as we want and not slow our process down.
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Thats crazy numbers. I wonder if its a state by state case. We get paid from Texas Medicaid (which is our lowest payor) $80.47 for flu. $65.51 for RSV, $32.75 for Flu. The QC for one lot number can be run once then exported and imported on the other devices. I profited around $52K last school/flu season from all three test combined.
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I am in Houston and big on Medicaid. I donāt know how you managed to export the QC from one Abbott machine to another. When we installed the COVID flash drive, it wiped out the Flu, Strep and RSV QC and we had lose more tests for reinstalling QC. I think Abbott priced the COVID to maximize their profit as their product was the first. Which Medicaid MCOs operate in your area?
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Have you received the COVID tests for your Abbott ID now? We were told to expect them late September, it is now 10/30 and we have still not received them. The company cannot really give us a time frame; they just say it is āmanufacturing delays.ā They say everyone is in the same boat, and Iām just trying to figure out if that is really true? LH
They definitely did not price them well. When we put the update on the new machine we did QC on one machine then used the import export feature to do it on all other machines. Under Setup>Lot Management>import QC or export QC. Also tell your Abbott rep and they might be able to send you a free kit for any errors and QC. Hopefully this helps.
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I have continued to hear that as well. I have been asking for these tests since the moment they came out in March. I bugged them every week until I finally received them. I do have access to order more but honestly I donāt know when I would receive them. I am testing about 4-5/day currently. Our screening technique is that they have to have at least two symptoms and been exposed to COVID positive.
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Same here. We were promised machines and tests the end of Sept and now it is almost Nov and nothing. Weāve now been told first week in Nov but not holding my breath.
We received our 5 machines in early Sept and have not received any tests which had been promised by the end of September. How many did you receive at Pediatric Associates in Palestine?
Thanks for the tip. The Abbott rep never told us we can export it. I had problems getting paid for the molecular RSV so stopped it after one box. Which Medicaid MCOs operate in your area? We never do the Abbott tests for private payors as most of them have labs in the patientās deductible.
We have Superior and Amerigroup as our STAR. United Health and Texas Childrens as our STAR Kids. Molina and Superior as our CHIP
Thanks. We have all of these except Superior. Do all of these pay for the Abbott ID RSV? Molina did not pay for any molecular test a few years back.