Cologuard Quotations about COGS of Cologuard Plus

 Direct quotations from Chat GPT including prompt.

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   Let's pivot back to Cologuard coding.   Cologuard Plus 0464U was priced by CMS in CY2024, inititially proposed at parity to Cologuard Original about $520 and   later raised by cMS to 81327x3 or nearly $600.   

However, I seem to recall statements by Exact sciences that the operating costs or COGS or Cologuard Plus would be less - COGS is less - than had been the case for Cologuard Original.   Your assignment is to use agentic reserach and search the internet for quotations or statements where Exact sciencee (or, if demarcated as such, analysts) imply or statte that COGS goes down for Cologuard Plus.    

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Yes—your recollection is correct, and the evidence is explicit and repeated. 

Exact Sciences management described the next-generation Cologuard test as costing at least 5% less per test in 2023, reiterated lower COGS during the 2024 pricing process, and stated in May 2025 that Cologuard Plus cost about 5%–6% less to run than original Cologuard. These are company statements, not merely analyst inferences. The Motley Fool

• There is also a useful rediscovery: you covered this yourself on November 6, 2024, in “Exact Sciences—Earnings Call a Tutorial in Crosswalk and ADLT pricing.” Your post specifically highlighted the lower cost of goods for Cologuard Plus. discoveriesinhealthpolicy.com

The strongest passages follow. Quotations are short exact excerpts; the surrounding explanations are paraphrases.

1. June 21, 2023: Company-hosted Investor Day transcript—explicit COGS reduction and an operational explanation

Jeff Elliott, CFO, discussing the next-generation product then called Cologuard 2, said:

“we expect at least a 5% reduction in cost of goods per test”

In the preceding answer, Jake Orville explained that one of the two laboratory processing lines described during the investor tour would go away with Cologuard 2, connecting that simplification to approximately 5% lower costs.

Elliott placed the product improvement within a broader ambition to reduce Cologuard cost per test from approximately $125 to $100 or less. The entire $125-to-$100 reduction should not be attributed to Plus alone: he also discussed continued improvements and laboratory operating leverage. s22.q4cdn.com

Exact Sciences Investor Day transcript, PDF pages 29–30

This is particularly useful evidence because the transcript is hosted with the company’s investor materials and predates the CMS pricing proceedings.

2. August 1, 2023: Q2 earnings call—direct comparison with original Cologuard

Jeff Elliott, CFO and COO, answering a question about Cologuard 2 cost of goods:

“the cost per test of Cologuard 2 will be at least 5% lower than what it is today for Cologuard 1.”

He attributed the reduction to the development of more accurate markers, automation, and efficiencies incorporated into the new test. This is the clearest early statement comparing the two generations directly. The Motley Fool

Q2 2023 earnings-call transcript

3. March 14, 2024: Company presentation—fewer markers and better laboratory throughput

Slide 6 of Exact Sciences’ BLUE-C presentation states:

“Cologuard Plus delivers performance and cost advantages”

The slide depicts a reduction from 11 markers to five and identifies improved laboratory throughput. It does not quantify COGS savings, but it provides company-authored support for the operational explanation behind the earnings-call statements. s22.q4cdn.com

Exact Sciences BLUE-C presentation, slide 6

4. November 5, 2024: Q3 earnings call—higher selling price and lower COGS discussed together

Aaron Bloomer, CFO, described an expected gross-margin benefit in 2025:

“with the launch of Cologuard Plus, which will give us added ASP as well as lower cost of goods.”

This statement occurred during the same fall in which CMS was finalizing the new test’s payment determination. It explicitly identifies two separate favorable effects: higher average selling price and lower production costs. The Motley Fool

Q3 2024 earnings-call transcript

5. May 1, 2025: Q1 earnings call—approximately 5%–6% lower cost to run Plus

Aaron Bloomer, CFO, answering Barclays analyst Luke Sergott’s question about gross margins:

“the actual cost to run the test is lower by about 5% or 6% than it is for Cologuard.”

The immediately preceding wording identifies Cologuard Plus as the test being compared with original Cologuard. Bloomer also acknowledged potential transition costs from sorting specimens and running the two product lines concurrently. He expected the pricing benefit to more than offset those potential headwinds. marketbeat.com

Q1 2025 transcript, approximately 44:25 into the call

This is the strongest later confirmation: the company was still describing lower unit operating costs as the product entered commercial use.

Secondary reporting also noticed the combination of higher requested payment and lower costs.

• July 26, 2024—Investing.com: Its report on the Medicare advisory-panel discussion juxtaposed Exact’s requested 25% price increase with the company’s expectation of 5% lower COGS. This is secondary financial reporting, not a CMS finding or an original analyst research note. The page discloses AI assistance and editorial review. investing.com
• November 26, 2024—Investing.com, reporting on Leerink Partners’ outlook: The article described the favorable final Medicare pricing decision alongside 5% lower COGS for Plus, attributing that cost expectation to company management. Again, this is a media account of the analyst outlook, rather than the underlying Leerink note. investing.com

For your purposes, the direct company statements above are stronger evidence than either secondary article.

The defensible conclusion is that Exact repeatedly represented Plus as a less expensive test to produce, despite seeking and obtaining higher reimbursement. The evidence concerns per-test COGS or the cost of running the assay. It does not mean total corporate spending fell, nor does it independently establish an audited, fully allocated cost for each product.

A concise formulation you can use is:

Exact Sciences repeatedly told investors that Cologuard Plus would have lower per-test costs than original Cologuard. Management projected at least a 5% reduction in 2023, reiterated lower COGS alongside anticipated higher selling prices in November 2024, and described a 5%–6% lower cost to run the test in May 2025. The Motley Fool

One small correction to the coding premise: CMS’s official CY2025 mapping is 0464U → 81327 × 3 + 82274—81327, rather than 83127 [i fixed in my prompt above], and including the fecal hemoglobin component. CMS documented that crosswalk in its December 13, 2024 transmittal. cms.gov

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