Switching Drug Testing Providers
Most employers stay with a testing provider far longer than they intended, because switching sounds disruptive and nobody owns the project. Done properly it is a planned cutover with no gap in coverage, and it is usually where the savings are.
Why Employers Look
Four reasons come up repeatedly, and only one of them is price.
- Cost. Somebody in finance finally added up what testing costs, including the invoices nobody reviews.
- Coverage. The program works at headquarters and falls apart at the other locations, or for anyone working remotely.
- Responsiveness. There was an incident at 8pm and nobody answered.
- Records. Someone asked for documentation of the last four random selections and it could not be produced.
Where the Money Actually Is
Employers who move their program can often cut testing costs by roughly 30 to 40% in our experience, though what you actually save depends on your current contract and volume. Where it happens, it rarely comes from negotiating a lower per-test rate. It comes from two structural things.
Paying for someone to travel to you
Mobile and on-site collection services bring a collector to your location, and you pay for that: travel, wait time, minimum visit charges, and a trip fee that lands the same whether one employee is tested or ten. For a large site with steady volume that can be reasonable. For a scattered workforce, one-off pre-employment tests, or an after-hours post-accident test, the cost of getting a collector to the employee frequently exceeds the cost of the test.
Paying laboratory fees on every specimen
Some programs send every specimen to a laboratory for confirmation testing regardless of the screening result. Confirmation is the correct step for a non-negative result and protects both the employee and the employer. Running it on specimens that already screened negative adds a laboratory fee to every test in the program, and the large majority of tests are negative.
Screening first, then confirming only non-negatives with Medical Review Officer review, keeps the protection exactly where it belongs and removes the rest of the cost.
Want to see what your current program actually costs?A specialist will benchmark it against your volume. Five questions, about a minute.
Request a SpecialistWhat to Ask Before You Give Notice
- What is the notice period, and is there a termination fee?
- Who holds our historical records, and how do we get them?
- What is in flight right now: pending results, open collections, scheduled selections?
- Which employees are on active follow-up schedules, and how many tests remain on each?
- Does our written policy name the provider or describe a method that is about to change?
Answering these before you give notice turns a switch into a project plan instead of a scramble.
What a Clean Transition Looks Like
- Scope. Current policy, locations, headcount, testing types, panels, and what you are paying now.
- Gap review. What the current program is missing, which is often documentation rather than testing.
- Build. The new program configured to your policy, with pools and rosters rebuilt from current data.
- Cutover date. One clear line. Before it, the old provider. After it, the new one.
- Carry-over. Active follow-up schedules moved intact, remaining tests preserved.
- Notice. Employees told what changes for them; the policy updated if it referenced the old arrangement.
- Records. Historical files retrieved or access confirmed in writing.
The one thing not to skip: active follow-up and return-to-duty schedules. Those are written commitments to specific employees. If tests get missed because a schedule fell between two providers, the agreement itself is what gets questioned.
When Not to Switch
If your current provider is priced fairly for your volume, covers your locations, answers the phone, and can produce records on request, stay. A benchmark conversation that ends in "you are in good shape" is a legitimate outcome, and it is worth twenty minutes to know which situation you are in.
Common questions
Will testing stop during the transition?
It should not. A transition is planned with a cutover date, and testing continues on both sides of it: the outgoing provider handles anything already in flight, the new program takes everything from the cutover forward. Where employers get hurt is an unplanned switch where a random selection or a follow-up test falls into the gap between providers, because that gap is the thing an employee's attorney will find later.
Who owns our historical test records?
Check your current agreement, because this varies and it matters. Some providers return records on request, some charge for retrieval, and some retain them for a defined period under their own policies. Ask before you give notice, not after. Your own retention obligations continue regardless of who holds the file.
What happens to employees on follow-up schedules?
They carry over, and this is the detail most likely to be dropped. Every employee on a return-to-duty or follow-up schedule has a remaining number of tests over a remaining period, agreed in writing. That schedule has to move intact, because failing to complete it undermines the agreement you made with that employee.
How long does switching take?
It depends mostly on how organized your current program is. An employer who can produce their policy, their pool roster, and their active follow-up schedules can move quickly. An employer reconstructing those from three inboxes takes longer, and that reconstruction is worth doing anyway, because it is usually where the current program's gaps become visible.
Do we need to tell employees?
Yes, and keep it simple. Employees need to know what changes for them: where collections happen, who contacts them, and what to do when selected. If your policy names the provider or describes a specific collection method, the policy needs updating too, and some states require notice before changes to a testing program take effect.
Benchmark Your Current Program
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Sources and review
- SAMHSA - Drug-Free Workplace employer resources
- Minnesota Statutes 181.951 - Authorized drug and alcohol testing
This page is general information about employer drug testing, not legal advice. Drug testing rules differ by state and by industry. Check with your own counsel before setting or changing a testing policy.