Break-even for a Zusatzleistung is one question asked in the right order. The first half is what a single appointment contributes. That is the price the pharmacy charges less the costs that only arise because that appointment happened, which is the consumables, the tube, the laboratory invoice for that sample, the payment processing fee and the paid working minutes the appointment consumes. Those are the variable costs, and the line between them and the standing costs of the premises is drawn under Fixkosten und variable Kosten. What survives the subtraction is the contribution per appointment.
The second half is the additional fixed cost the service creates. Only costs that would disappear if the service were switched off belong in this figure, so the device, the training, a software licence, an insurance rider and any contracted hours taken on specifically for it. Divide that monthly figure by the contribution per appointment and the answer is how many appointments a month the service needs before it stops costing money. Dividing again by the weeks the pharmacy is open converts it into a weekly target, which is the only form an owner can hold against a real appointment calendar.
The usual way this calculation goes wrong is loading a share of the existing rent, the existing heating and the existing base salaries onto every appointment. That absorption is a reasonable exercise when the question is a long run price floor. It is the wrong input for a decision about whether to start, because those costs are already being paid whether the appointment happens or not. A service that fills an hour the pharmacy is open anyway, in a room already heated, with staff already on the payroll, will read as unprofitable under a full share of rent while it is in fact adding contribution. Workable services are abandoned on exactly that arithmetic.
The inputs no benchmark can supply are the pharmacy's own. The price, the per appointment cost of consumables and laboratory work, the minutes the appointment really consumes and the loaded cost of those minutes, which comes out of a Stundensatzkalkulation. Break-even says when a month stops losing money. How long the initial spending takes to come back is the separate question of Amortisationsdauer, and both eventually show in the Betriebsergebnis.
This glossary entry is general information about German pharmacy law and practice. It is not legal advice. For binding guidance on your own pharmacy, contact your Landesapothekerkammer.
