An adequate smear contains anywhere from 300,000-500,000 cells. Often there may only be a few abnormal cells scattered on the smears. The study is time-consuming and contributes to fatigue and stress in the examiner. Efforts to reduce the effects of distracting influence have been attempted by reducing the volume of cases screened and by adding breaks after each hour. Competition between labs has definitely played a role in keeping the charges low.
Most insurance companies pay less.
The cost of screening by cytotechnologists has escalated because of substantial reduction of cases, work hours and days. Instrumentation can improve screening but, being expensive, it does not lower the cost of operation. At the present rate of reimbursement, large entities lose millions of dollars annually. This must not happen. Cervical cancer screening is too important to too many women.