Costs

Question 1

Direct costs

Answer 1

Costs directly assigned to a billable test result. Includes consumables and supplies, technical labor for performing, QC related activities, apportioned and depreciation of equipment costs

Question 2

Indirect costs

Answer 2

Not directly involved with production of a billable test. Includes costs to acquire specimens and bill for tests.
Personnel costs - including personnel time of not doing the tests directly (supervisor, phlebotomist, secretary), office supplies, billing costs, courier service

Question 3

Variable costs

Answer 3

Costs which change with production volume.
Variable direct cost- reagents/supplies
Variable indirect cost- supervisor time to oversee operations and QC review

Question 4

Fixed costs

Answer 4

Don’t change with production volume.
Lease on equipment, building costs (rent, utilities), technologists needed for coverage regardless of work level, Admin overhead (client services,sales, marketing), management related supplies

Question 5

Prime costs

Answer 5

Direct labor and direct material costs necessary to produce a billable result.
E.g. comparing different methods for same analyte on same instrument/analyzer

Question 6

Conversion costs

Answer 6

Costs necessary to produce a billable result without considering cost of materials.
E.g. comparing same analyte using same amount and type of reagent on different instrument/analyzer

Question 7

Full production costs

Answer 7

Includes all costs to produce a billable result except indirect costs and ready to serve costs.
Includes Prime and conversion costs

Question 8

Ready to Serve costs

Answer 8

Costs incurred to keep the lab operational.

Includes - section overhead, cost for collecting and reporting results, lab admin costs

Question 9

Fully Loaded costs

Answer 9

Full production + Ready to Serve costs

Prime + conversion + section overhead + cost for collecting/reporting results + general lab admin costs

Question 10

Prime + conversion + sectional overhead + cost for collecting/reporting results + lab admin costs

Answer 10

Fully loaded costs

Question 11

Direct labor + direct materials

Answer 11

Prime costs

Question 12

Direct labor + section overhead

Answer 12

Conversion costs

Question 13

Direct labor + direct materials + section overhead

Answer 13

Full Production costs

Question 14

Section overhead + general lab admin + cost for collecting/reporting

Answer 14

Ready to Serve

Question 15

Full production + Ready to serve

Answer 15

Fully loaded

Question 16

% of lab budget for salary

Answer 16

60-80%

Question 17

What are fringe benefits?

Answer 17

20-25% of lab budget.
Annual vacation, sick, maternity, Social security tax, unemployed comp, workers comp, health insurance, life and disability, retirement,

Question 18

% lab budget for fringe benefits

Answer 18

20-25%

Question 19

50% reduction in workload results in

Answer 19

14% reduction in FTE

Question 20

High % of Fully loaded costs are

Answer 20

Fixed costs

Question 21

For every 10% decrease in workload results in average of

Answer 21

2.9% FTE decrease