Consumer perceptions of and willingness-to-pay for point-of-care testing services in the community pharmacy.

BACKGROUND: Point-of-care testing (POCT) is a specialty of laboratory medicine that occurs at the bedside or near the patient when receiving health services. Despite its clinical utility, POCT implementation in the community pharmacy setting is slow due to uncertainty about the market for this novel service and remuneration for services rendered.

OBJECTIVE: To identify 1) demographics and 2) willingness-to-pay preferences of the market niche of consumers who prefer to receive POCT services in the community pharmacy.

METHODS: A sample of 188 participants matched to the U.S. population were surveyed in February of 2016 utilizing a self-explicated conjoint analysis survey model.

RESULTS: Age groups differed between the community pharmacy consumer niche and the entire sample. The largest age group of the pharmacy niche consumer group were between 20 and 34 years old. Of those who preferred the community pharmacy setting to receive POCT services, 75% indicated they would be willing to pay $50 or more compared to 79% of the entire sample who preferred to pay $50 or less.

CONCLUSIONS: There exists a latent and niche group of consumers interested in community pharmacy provided POCT services. This market niche is younger, and in general willing-to-pay more than the general population for these tests.