Coronavirus: Why PCR tests are cheaper in Austria

Anyone who takes a PCR test in Austria has only paid six euros for a long time. In Germany, the “gold standard” could cost ten times as much. So far, however, there has been little interest in the Austrian model.

A year ago, in Austria, they were already wondering why the PCR tests are so expensive in Germany – or why they are billed so expensively. Six euros per corona test, that was and is the price in Austria for the PCR “gold standard”, as is emphasized. The price in Germany was 40 to 60 euros.

Michael Havel, the managing director of the Lifebrain Group, the leading laboratory in Vienna, formulated his industry-internal suspicion a year ago. There are many particular interests, established laboratories in Germany would charge between 50 and 70 euros for a PCR test. “Of course they have no interest in saying that you can do it better and cheaper,” he said.

The methods of Lifebrain boss Havel were sharply attacked. First and foremost from the ALM, the Association of Accredited Laboratories in Medicine, i.e. the German laboratory lobby. They accused the Vienna laboratory that it would count incorrectly and that the tests were worth less. Even the then spokesman for the German Ministry of Health used the derogatory label of the “lollipop test”, but later retracted it. show it research by WDR, NDR and SZ now that the state and health insurance companies could have saved billions with the tests.

Austria has simplified PCR testing

What did you do better in Austria? Answer: They have simplified, digitized and better organized PCR testing. Without compromising the quality of the tests, as Angela Hengsberger from Lead Horizon made clear at the time. Lead Horizon is the logistics partner of the Lifebrain laboratory. “It’s actually a real PCR test that’s done in the lab,” she explained. The only thing that distinguishes it from an ordinary PCR test is the sampling at home.

That means: no doctor, no pharmacist, no expensive medical professional has to watch how you gargle and spit into a tube. The smartphone takes care of that, all you have to do is record a video. Everything else runs digitally, the data is adequately protected. Saves the effort for a test date. Then: saliva sample in the box at the nearest drugstore. And – twice a day – off to the Lifebrain laboratory.

Large laboratory relies on cheap assistants

The large laboratory bought up test robots early on and works with cheap assistants for everything where no medical knowledge is required. Be it collecting the samples or tearing open the packaging.

It is then tested in the “pool” – ten samples at a time. If all are negative, the case is closed. If the virus is detected, each sample is individually retested several times. They lowered the price per test from initially 129 euros to six euros, paid for by the city of Vienna. This is how the Viennese felt “Corona test world champions”.

No interest in the Austrian model

The German laboratory lobby ALM announced at the time that we do the same in Germany. German laboratories would only not count each test individually, but the pool of ten as one. For only 35 euros. Seen in this way, Germany would be cheaper, it was said at the time.

In Austria, however, there were doubts and they wanted to know: The offer was for the Austrian model to be exported to Germany. “Of course we contacted the Robert Koch Institute and the Ministry of Health,” said Angela Hengsberger from Lead Horizon a year ago. “But the status so far was: No, it’s not interesting for us.”

We asked Hengsberger in January 2023: What happened to it? Result: You haven’t heard anything from Germany since then.