At a time when some recommend reviewing the testing strategy and making less use of PCR tests, Déclic wanted to establish the invoice for these tests, since the start of the crisis. As the INAMI was only able to provide us with partial data (stopping in September 2021), we decided to do our little calculations.
€47 then €40 reimbursed per test
It should first be noted that the PCR tests carried out since March 2020 have not all been subject to the same reimbursement. For clinical biology laboratories, the reimbursement amount was initially set at €47.18 per test. This price was then reduced, effective May 1, 2021, mainly due to the reduction in the prices of the reagents used to perform this test. It was established at 40,44 €the reimbursement amount still practiced to this day.
However, some tests, a minority, are carried out within the framework of a federal platform (bis platform) which was set up before winter 2020 and which brings together 8 university centers in our country. For these analysis centres, the tests are reimbursed up toaround thirty euros. This is linked to the fact that, for this platform, the State has intervened to pay for certain investments in equipment, that it provides the reagents and also guarantees a minimum number of tests that can be billed each day, whether they are done or not. This minimum number was 2000/day per university center at the start and has now been reduced to 750/day. A kind of safety cushion given to university laboratories so that they maintain a testing capacity that is always available. This “mattress” also justifies that they receive, per test, an amount lower than that reimbursed to other laboratories.
An estimated total amount of €1.2 billion
Taking into account these different prices, we were able to find in the figures of Sciensanothe number of tests carried out before and after the price change as well as the number of analyzes carried out directly by the federal platform.
Between the start of the crisis and May 1, 2021, a few 11 million tests were carried out for an overall reimbursement amount of €518 million (each test being reimbursed at €47.18). Since then, more than 14 million tests which were reimbursed to the tune of €40.44… estimated total: €569 million
On the side of the federal platform, Sciensano identifies 3.6 million tests which, when multiplied by a reimbursed amount of €29, results in a total of €105 million.
Overall, for the more than 28.7 million tests carried out, we can calculate a bill of 1.19 billion €
A bill that is probably undervalued
This estimated price is actually only part of the total bill for the testing strategy. It does not take into account the establishment, almost everywhere in Belgium, of large collection centers (Drive In) with all the necessary staff, nor the reimbursement to general practitioners of certain samples. Nor does it include the direct aid provided to certain universities and certain hospitals to purchase equipment dedicated to these tests, not to mention the tests paid for but not carried out within the framework of the “safety mattress” provided to the university partners of the testing platform.
The real bill for PCR tests is therefore probably even heavier… enough to fuel the debates today for a redefinition of the testing strategy, at a time when Omicron has partly changed the epidemic situation.