QT Medical’s PCA-500 is a revolutionary 10 lead ECG that is the first and only compact, wireless, and cloud-based 12 channel ECG available for clinic and home use. The PCA-500 is the only hospital-grade ECG approved for patients use under a cardiologist’s guidance, meaning it is ideal for patients who are elderly or immunocompromised that need cardiac care from home due to COVID-19. Thus, reducing contamination and infection from vulnerable populations of individuals.
The receiver is smaller than a deck of cards and it is incredibly easy to use. The user simply applies an all-in-one prepositioned electrode strip onto the designated area of the chest and the machine does the rest. Once connected wirelessly to a phone or tablet the unit can perform a 10 second ECG and sends the results to doctors via a cloud-based app. The doctor will be able to read the results from their PC in a matter of minutes.
The results of the ECG will be more consistent from ECG to ECG because of the decrease of variation on the placement of electrodes that may occur from traditional ECG. It also reduces human error that may occur. This will allow doctors to observe subtle changes in cardiac health rather than changes in the placement of electrodes.
Now, what about the price? One of the biggest determining factors when making an investment in new innovative medical equipment is how much you will save or spend in the long run. For start let’s examine how much the initial investment will be. The one time cost of the PCA-500 device is $2,995, the cost for each test is $10 and the cost for each mobile ECG service is $70. The initial investment may seem expensive but there is still so much more to consider. For instance, using the following CPT codes will grant a much higher average reimbursement rate than traditional ECGs. CPT Code 99091 -Remote test and report grants a $66 average reimbursement. Combining this with the CPT code 99490 for chronic care management grants a $48 average reimbursement. The reimbursement for ECG and reporting is 3x higher than the $18 average reimbursement with CPT code 93000. Reimbursement codes are not the only way. on top of higher reimbursement codes, the cumulative cost over three years for the PCA-500 will be more economical than mobile services if a facility’s test has a volume of 2 or more tests per month. See the figures below for more information.
With convenience and ease of the use of the PCA-500, there is also no need for a dedicated ECG Technician. As seen from the figures, it costs an average of $70 per test to hire and outside tech to come in and take the test for you, while it is about $10 on average for each PCA-500 test. For the total cost in the first year, one would have to do 5 tests a month on average to begin to save money, in the second year that number drops down to three tests on average to begin to save. The monthly number of tests needed to break even gets lower and lower with each year of using the PCA-500. With this perspective, the PCA-500 can be seen as an investment that can save substantially on multiple avenues of cost, with more time and money being saved over time.
