Why the Question Matters More in 2027

Flu and COVID-19 co-circulate every respiratory season, and the symptoms are nearly identical in the first 24–48 hours. Fever, cough, fatigue, body aches — both virus lists look the same. That symptom overlap created a purchasing question that did not exist five years ago: should a clinic run one test or two?

When COVID-19 rapid tests first arrived, they were standalone products and flu tests were a separate line item. Procurement teams bought them independently, ran them independently, and billed for them independently. The WellLife COVID-19 Influenza A&B combination test consolidates that into one swab, one cartridge, and one result — detecting influenza A, influenza B, and SARS-CoV-2 simultaneously.

The CDC has consistently supported same-visit testing for respiratory pathogens when symptom presentation is ambiguous, noting that timely diagnosis supports appropriate antiviral treatment decisions most effective within the first 48 hours of illness onset (cdc.gov). The combination test is the operational answer to that guidance for point-of-care settings.

But the clinical case alone does not close the procurement decision for most buyers. The purchasing team wants to know: does it actually cost less? Here is the breakdown.

The Cost Comparison: 100 Patients, Two Approaches

The chart below illustrates the total cost of testing 100 symptomatic patients under two scenarios: running a standalone WellLife influenza A&B rapid test plus a separate WellLife COVID-19 antigen test for each patient, versus running the combination test once. Figures are illustrative — replace with your actual per-unit pricing from DrugScreens.com before presenting internally.

The illustrative numbers make the gap visible. At $14 per patient for two separate tests versus $9 per patient for the combo, a clinic testing 100 symptomatic patients saves approximately $500 on kit costs alone. Scale that to a 500-patient flu season and the savings are $2,500 — just on the test cartridges, before labor is counted.

The Hidden Costs Two Separate Tests Add

The per-cartridge price difference is the most visible part of the comparison. The less visible costs add up faster.

Double the Swabs

Running two separate tests means two specimen collections — two nasal swabs per patient. Swabs are low-cost individually, but at scale they represent an additional consumable line item that the combo test eliminates entirely. One swab, one extraction, one result.

Double the Technician Time

Each separate test requires its own setup, development wait, result read, and documentation entry. For a clinic running 50 respiratory tests per day, the difference between one workflow and two workflows is meaningful — estimated at 3–5 minutes per patient in additional staff time. At scale, that is hours per week of labor cost that the combo test eliminates.

Double the Documentation

Two separate tests generate two separate result records — two lot numbers to log, two results to document, two entries in the patient chart. CLIA-waived testing programs are required to maintain test records. A combo test cuts that documentation workload in half for every dual-tested patient.

Second-Visit Risk

When a clinic runs only a flu test and it comes back negative, the clinician may order a COVID test as a follow-up — either in the same visit (effectively running both anyway) or in a callback scenario that neither the patient nor the clinic wants. The combo test eliminates that decision loop by answering both questions the first time.

How to Run the Math for Your Program

Replace the illustrative figures with your actual numbers using this formula:

Separate test cost per season = (flu test unit price + COVID test unit price) × estimated symptomatic patients

Combo test cost per season = combo test unit price × estimated symptomatic patients

Savings = Separate test cost — Combo test cost

Then add the labor differential. If your staff spends an average of 4 minutes per patient on the second test workflow — setup, wait, read, document — and your clinical labor costs $30–$40 per hour, multiply those minutes by your patient volume. For a 500-patient flu season that is roughly 33 hours of additional labor, or $990–$1,320 in staff time the combo test eliminates.

For high-volume urgent care centers, employer health clinics, and long-term care facilities, the combined kit-plus-labor savings of the combo test over a full respiratory season routinely exceed $3,000–$5,000 versus the two-test approach.

Which Products to Compare

DrugScreens.com carries both options so buyers can run this comparison with real pricing. The WellLife COVID-19 Influenza A&B combination test (point-of-care) detects influenza A, influenza B, and SARS-CoV-2 from a single anterior nasal swab in a CLIA-waived cartridge format. For programs that need flu coverage only, the WellLife influenza A&B rapid test and the standalone WellLife COVID-19 antigen test are available separately.

All three are stocked in the infectious disease rapid test collection with bulk pricing, U.S.-based inventory, and fast shipping — so the per-unit costs you plug into the formula above reflect what your program would actually pay.