President Biden and the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA) has recently announced a new Vaccine Mandate. Biden’s mandate will encompass all employers who have more than 100 employees to either be fully vaccinated or if not, they must undergo COVID-19 testing, at least weekly. As the new vaccine mandate is coming to light, it’s only natural to wonder what impact this mandate will have, primarily on the Laboratory Industry.

More Stress for Laboratories

Imagine Walt Disney Co. who has over hundreds of thousands of employees. Now assume that anywhere from 30-50% of staff is not fully vaccinated, meaning they will have to undergo Covid testing weekly. The frequent testing will no doubt disrupt your laboratory and many laboratories are preparing for what’s about to come, as they should be. Already, The Wall Street Journal has noted that “early this past week laboratories in the U.S. were processing more than 1.2 million daily Covid-19 tests,” which is an astronomically high number. With this new mandate upon the horizon laboratories will be under more stress but how exactly will this new Biden mandate alter your laboratory?

1. Volume and Capacity

One of the biggest issues laboratories will be facing due to this new mandate is having a large enough capacity and volume to handle the vast amount of testing. The Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) Covid-19 test is the most utilized test out there and is carried out in laboratories; However, laboratories will not have enough staff to carry out these tests to the degree weekly testing will necessitate. In terms of capacity, laboratories will need more people on the job to perform these tests as well as process the results in a timely manner too. Not only capacity is an issue, but volume is just as big of a problem. There simply are not enough laboratories in the US to manage weekly Covid testing. The reality is laboratories do an amplitude more than purely Covid testing, so now they will be faced with being swamped with Covid testing along with the other essential diagnostics tests they must perform.

2. Supply Chain

To perform and process weekly Covid testing an increased number of supplies will be needed. It’s not just a slight increase of supplies that will be needed either but more like a constant surge. Currently, the supply chain is already a prevalent issue for laboratories so just imagine how massive a problem it will be when weekly testing comes into play.

3. Cost

With this new mandate the question that everyone is asking is who is going to be responsible for paying for the weekly testing? Will it be the employers or the individuals who must undergo testing? Or unlikely enough will it be insurance companies? There is still much uncertainty of exactly who will be paying for the cost of it all. However, there is one thing that is very much so certain, weekly testing will be immensely costly.

With This New Mandate it’s Time to Outsource

At Acrev Solutions we understand with this new Biden mandate your laboratory will be facing an extensive amount of stress. Now is the time to outsource to us so we can handle all billing and your laboratory can primarily focus on testing. Our laboratory billing solutions and services are designed to make payer billing quick and easy. If you want a seamless solution and billing automation, reach out to our team, and let us help you.