Labs find lower Covid RT-PCR test pricing unviable, some may opt out

Unless a lab is doing a large volume of tests, the business will not be sustainable and smaller labs will not be able to continue

Even as the move by state governments to cap the maximum price of a Covid-19 reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test has made it more affordable, diagnostic laboratories (labs) feel otherwise. Lab executives say it will not be a viable business model and trigger losses. 

In fact, the not-so big labs may even stop Covid testing at these rock-bottom rates, forecast industry experts.

A Delhi-based lab owner said business would only be sustainable if a lab was handling a large volume of RT-PCR tests.

A Mumbai-based lab chain with a pan-Indian network echoed the sentiment. “Capping lab tests is vote-bank politics by state