What are the financial costs associated with testing?
Summary From the literature, eight cost components have been identified and assigned a reasonable unit cost estimate • Providing education/information to the entire population $1 to $3 • Obtaining informed consent $5 to $10 • Collecting and transporting the sample $10 (blood) $4 (buccal) • Performing the DNA test $80 to $100 • Reporting negative results $2 (by mail/fax/electronic) • Reporting positive results $20 (individual) $50 (couple) • Performing diagnostic testing $400 to $600 (w/o karyotype) • Accounting for procedure-related fetal losses $400 The costs per case of cystic fibrosis prenatally diagnosed are then computed using the above cost estimates, uptake rates, prevalences and proportions of mutations identified for each of five racial/ethnic groups. The costs per case detected using either the two-step (sequential) or the one-step (couple) model are • $ 500,000 for non-Hispanic Caucasians (the largest target population) • $ 400,000 for Ashkenazi Jewish • $ 4,000,000 for Hisp
