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Comment by jjallen | Hacker News Reader

This is like 10x the cost of other hsCRP tests you can take from home.

Pretty hard to justify the cost differential.

Also, going to a proper doctor and having a real blood test done once a year would cost way less than this.

I'm obviously not in the target market but apparently I can get the test for 450 INR or 5.65 USD. This is includes a trained phlebotomist coming to my house to take the sample: https://www.1mg.com/labs/test/High-Sensitive-CRP-2274

This is helpful to know as we look into international expansion.

Our current pricing is in the US market. Hopefully, costs decrease over here over time!

I believe our prices are in line with other at home tests. Would you mind sharing any links you have that have pricing 10x lower? I'd love to look into it and see if we can bring our costs down for our customers!

I found this one https://www.ultalabtests.com/test/cardio-iq-hs-crp for $30 something.

Usually they are anywhere between $50 and $90 on everlywell and letsgetchecked I think.

You're right on the money at $74 I think but I will steer clear due to this $60/year digital platform subscription that kicks off after year 1.

We made it optional to auto-renew the subscription. Hope you give us a try!

Some quick research shows these tests can be ordered by the patients, themselves, for ~$60, so the same as the disccounted/offer price here.

LabCorp: https://www.ondemand.labcorp.com/lab-tests/inflammation-hs-c...

Quest: https://questdirect.questdiagnostics.com/products/crp-inflam...

The whole point is that the test is part of a system to put the results in context, more frequently that an annual visit. My doctor isn't very good and has never brought up or tested me for this.

Not going to argue with the price, but monthly / biweekly / weekly testing is way different than once a year. Yearly is enough to get an overall sense of where you are at, biweekly lets you correlate w/ much more fine-grained signals. Plus it keeps the score in your head as a goal.

> proper doctor and having a real blood test done once a year would cost way less than this.

how much is that?

Not sure about other countries but this is completely free in Australia. It's a general consult and bulk-billed onto medicare.

I get an annual blood test done, even if not in the country, have paid $30 in Europe and $20 in Asia as a foreigner, isn't even worth bothering to claim on overseas health insurance.

That seems correct to me. I tried to look up the costs in Australia and I think this is the Medicare Benefits Schedule for it (ie C-reactive protein), though I'm happy to be corrected if I'm wrong:

http://www9.health.gov.au/mbs/fullDisplay.cfm?type=item&q=66...

If correct, it seems the cost to the taxpayer is $9.70 AUD (about $6.67 US). So even without bulk-billing making it free here, that's still a 10x markup.

Thanks for this info, particularly as we look to expand internationally :)

Our price includes lab costs but also the cost of the packaging, shipping, ordering physician, etc. which all starts to add up!

We decided to start with at home kits for the convenience but are planning to explore other methods of measuring levels (e.g., partnering with physical labs)

Edit: I should also add that costs/prices typically start higher with startups and we fully expect them to come down as we scale.

Most insurance plans see this as preventative care to get bloodwork done when you're doing your wellness visit, so, if you have insurance, $0 out of pocket.

In my experience, some doctors won't order hsCRP (the marker we measure) for everyone. If they do, I think it would be rare for insurance to cover it multiple times per year.

Why do we need it multiple times per year? Maybe that's the part that needs to change, so as many people as possible have access to the data?

The idea is that by testing multiple times per year, you get more insight into what may be driving your levels and be able to intervene sooner

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