1. Draws you schedule in a typical week
2. The route, and trips that fail at the door
3. Fixed costs, your time and your target
4. Contract through an agency, or take a job
Enter your numbers or load the example, then click Work out the route.
Result
Each kind of draw
| Draw type | Fee per draw | Cost per draw | Profit per draw | Margin | Per working hour | Fee for target |
|---|
Batching: the same weekly draws grouped into fewer home or office stops
| Draws per stop | Stops | Drive hours | Working hours | Kept per week | Per working hour |
|---|
The week at different volumes: what you keep after your own time, three ways
| Volume | Draws | Working hours | Hours used | Solo | Agency contractor | Employed |
|---|
The arithmetic, and what it leaves out
- Every stop costs a drive (minutes at your hourly value, plus miles at your mileage cost) whether or not the patient is there. A trip that fails at the door also costs the minutes you spend there, and collects only the share of the fee you set.
- A completed draw earns its fee (a STAT draw adds the premium) and costs its supplies and its on-site minutes. Grouping draws into one stop pays the drive once, which is why batching and facility visits raise profit per working hour.
- Profit per working hour is cash kept per hour worked, including driving and lab drop-off, before valuing your own time. Profit per draw is what is left per completed draw after your time is valued and the fixed costs are spread over them.
- An agency contractor keeps the fees the agency bills less its take, and in this model still drives, pays mileage, insurance and certification and, unless you say otherwise, buys supplies. An employee earns the hourly wage for all hours including driving plus the mileage rate, and the employer pays supplies, insurance and certification.
- Not modelled: licensure, certification rules, CLIA and any state or payer requirement; tips; sales and income tax; billing delays and unpaid claims; vehicle purchase beyond the per-mile cost; overnight on-call time; any pay to you beyond the hourly figure you type; and an agency or employer that sends a different route from yours.
Common questions
How much should a mobile phlebotomist charge per draw?
Add the on-site minutes at what your time is worth, the drive to and from the stop at the same rate plus mileage, the tubes, needles and kit, and the draw's share of insurance and certification, then spread the cost of trips that fail at the door over the draws that happen, and divide by one minus the margin you want. Type your own drive, fee and failure rate and read the fee for each draw type off the table.
Is it better to batch draws into multi-patient visits?
Usually, because the drive is paid once per stop however many patients you draw. The calculator holds your weekly draws fixed and shows profit per working hour when home or office draws are grouped two, three, four or six to a stop. A facility visit with several patients is the same idea at larger size. A failed visit loses every draw at that stop, so batching raises the cost of each failure.
How many draws a week does a mobile phlebotomy route need to break even?
The weekly fixed costs (insurance, certification renewal spread over 52 weeks, other fixed cost and your lab drop-off and paperwork hours at your hourly value) divided by what each draw leaves after supplies, mileage, and your own drive and on-site time, at your current mix of draw types. The result is the scheduled draws per week, with the completed draws and stops that implies.
What do cancelled-at-the-door trips cost?
You still drive to the stop and spend a few minutes there, so the trip costs mileage and your time, plus the margin of the draw that did not happen, less whatever share of the fee you collect on a failed trip. The calculator prints the cost per week and per year, and shows what collecting part of the fee would recover.
Should I work solo, contract through an agency, or take a job as an employed phlebotomist?
The calculator works out the same route three ways: solo (you keep every fee and pay every cost), an agency contractor (the agency keeps a percent, may send more draws, and you may still buy supplies and pay mileage), and an employee (an hourly wage plus a mileage rate, with the employer paying supplies, insurance and certification). It prints the take per working hour for each, the agency take at which contracting matches solo, and the hourly wage at which a job matches solo.
What does this leave out?
Licensure, certification rules, CLIA and state or payer requirements, which it does not model at all and which decide whether and how you may draw blood. It also leaves out tips, sales and income tax, billing delays and bad debt, vehicle purchase and depreciation beyond the per-mile figure, overnight on-call time and the cost of owner's time beyond the hourly figure you type. It is arithmetic on numbers you type, not medical, legal, tax or financial advice, and not an estimate of record.
Is my data uploaded?
No. Everything runs in your browser tab and nothing is sent anywhere. There are no accounts. The share link keeps your numbers in the link itself, which you choose whether to send.