Association Of Medical Laboratories PCR Cost Value Of IDR 495 Thousand Still Expensive

ILLUSTRA TION / VOI

JAKARTA - General Chairperson of the Indonesian Medical Laboratory Technology Association (Patelki) Atna Permana said the government's new RT-PCR test still covers other expenditure components in the examination laboratory.

However, Atna assessed that the reduction in the cost of the RT-PCR test, which had just been set by the government, amounting to Rp495,000 in Java-Bali and Rp525 thousand outside Java-Bali is still too expensive.

"For real time PCR at a price set by the government, I saw reviews from ASEAN countries, people think that the cost is still too expensive," said Atna in a virtual discussion, Wednesday, August 18.

In contrast to the cost of the rapid molecular test (TCM) based PCR examination. In fact, said Atna, the price limit that has been lowered by the government has not been able to cover TCM inspection operations with the expenditure of other components.

"For RT-PCR, the price set by the government is now sufficient to cover. But for TCM the price is far, even more. Because we need TCM at the hospital too," said Atna.

Therefore, Atna said that many hospitals that have laboratories for testing COVID-19 tests adjust the price of TCM until the end of the month.

Previously, the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) officially set the highest tariff change for the cheaper price of the COVID-19 RT-PCR test. This new tariff will take effect on August 17, 2021.

"From the evaluation results, we have agreed that the highest tariff limit for real-time PCR examinations has been lowered to Rp495,000 for the islands of Java and Bali, and Rp525,000 for areas outside Java and Bali," said Director General of Health Services at the Ministry of Health, Abdul Kadir, Monday, 16 August.

Kadir said that the determination of the highest tariff for COVID-19 test examinations revised the Circular Letter of the Director General of Health Services Number HK.02.02/1/3713/2020 dated October 5, 2020.

"Almost a year ago, now is the time to conduct an evaluation by the health ministry together with BPKP," he said.

Kadir said that the evaluation was carried out through calculating the cost of the PCR examination which consisted of service components (HR), reagents or consumables, administrative costs, and other cost components that were adjusted to current conditions.