RxPlain ROI Calculator
Estimate the annual savings and payback of a discharge-education pilot. Enter your own weekly numbers — every field is editable, and you can add your own KPIs. Defaults are deliberately conservative. Only savings that land on your books drive the payback; readmission and ED-visit reductions accrue mainly to payers, so they're shown separately.
| KPI / Metric | Baseline / week | Improvement % | $ / unit | Annual savings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total savings to you (drives payback) | $0 |
Pays for itself in
Annual savings to you
3-year net value to you
Bonus: patient & payer value / yr*
The evidence behind RxPlain
Sources: Kessels, J R Soc Med, 2003 (40–80% forgotten almost immediately); Hansen et al., JMIR, 2024 (recall significantly improved in 73% / 11 of 15 studies); Deshpande et al., JMIR, 2023 (health-behavior outcomes improved in 56% / 21 of 38 reporting studies); patient-initiated post-op calls 29–46% within 14 days (spine-surgery & orthopedic-trauma cohorts); Hidalgo et al., PRS Global Open, 2024 (~one-third fewer calls per patient, 0.7 vs 1.1; 47% of video patients called the clinic vs 56% with written instructions); average hospital readmission cost ~$15,200 (AHRQ HCUP, 2018). Video's evidence is strongest for recall, comprehension, and callbacks; its effect on return visits and readmissions is more variable across trials, which is why those rows are treated conservatively and kept out of your payback.
*Bonus: patient & payer value = prevented readmissions and ED visits. These reductions mostly save money for payers and hospitals, not the clinic that buys RxPlain, so they are shown as bonus context and are excluded from your payback and net-value figures — your ROI stands on its own without them. If your organization is at risk for these costs (a health system, an ACO, or a capitated/value-based contract), they become real ROI too — move those rows into your own total.
Reach & view rate = the share of eligible patients who actually receive and watch the video. Published improvement rates were measured among patients who saw the material, so we scale every row by this figure. Default 75% is an editable placeholder — use your own delivery data once you have it.
Baseline / week = your current weekly volume for this row before RxPlain — e.g., the clarification calls your team fields, or staff hours spent re-explaining, in a typical week. Use your own numbers; estimate if exact data isn't handy.
Improvement % = the share of that weekly volume you expect to avoid once patients have video guidance they can revisit at home. Defaults sit at or below what trials report — adjust to your own expectations.
$ / unit = the dollar value of one avoided event or one staff hour in that row. Avoided-visit rows are valued at the staff cost of handling the visit / freed capacity, not full billed revenue. Defaults are either from published sources (cited below) or conservative estimates marked (est.) — adjust any to your own contracted rates.
Patient satisfaction, loyalty, and brand effects are real benefits but are intentionally not dollarized here — they're treated as qualitative upside, not savings, to keep the estimate conservative and defensible.
High-volume accounts (academic surgical programs, multi-site groups) enter larger weekly numbers, which shortens payback. At the conservative low-volume defaults the buyer-side payback runs several months to over a year; enter your real volumes to see it change. Investment starts at $15,000 per procedure set; subscription follows only on continuation. These figures are estimates for planning — not a guarantee.
How this is calculated. For each row: Annual savings = Baseline/week × (Improvement % ÷ 100) × $ per unit × 52 × (Reach & view rate ÷ 100). Only "savings to you" rows are summed for payback. Payback (months) = one-time investment ÷ (annual savings to you ÷ 12), and Year-1 net = annual savings to you − investment. The default $ / unit values are drawn from published sources (see References below); the weekly baselines, reach rate, and improvement rates are your own estimates — replace them with your organization's own numbers for a realistic estimate.
- Kessels RPC. Patients’ memory for medical information. J R Soc Med, 2003 — 40–80% of medical information is forgotten almost immediately.
- Hansen et al. Video animations to improve health-information recall: systematic review. JMIR, 2024 — recall significantly improved in 73% (11 of 15) of studies.
- Deshpande N, Press VG, et al. Video-based educational interventions for patients with chronic illnesses: systematic review. JMIR, 2023 — health-behavior outcomes improved in 56% (21 of 38) and self-efficacy in 52% (12 of 23) of reporting studies.
- Hidalgo et al. PRS Global Open, 2024 — ~one-third fewer post-op calls per patient with video vs written instructions (0.7 vs 1.1).
- AHRQ HCUP, Statistical Brief #311, 2021 — mean treat-and-release ED visit cost ~$750 (a payer-side cost).
- AHRQ HCUP, 2018 — average hospital readmission cost ~$15,200 (a payer-side cost). Note: readmission-reduction evidence comes largely from bundled heart-failure programs (education + coaching + follow-up), not standalone video — hence this row is conservative and excluded from buyer payback.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS (May 2024) — registered nurse mean wage $45.00/hr; veterinary technologist median wage $22.11/hr.
- Veterinary industry benchmarks (2024) — average veterinary invoice / transaction ~$153; active client value ~$500/yr (~$5,000 over a ~10-year bonded relationship).
- AAHA compliance data — recheck/follow-up and preventive-care compliance are recoverable-revenue levers (e.g., follow-up compliance improved from 79% to 86% with proactive scheduling).
Sourced per-unit values (readmissions, ED visits, staff wages, and the veterinary industry benchmarks) are drawn from the citations above. Rows marked (est.) use conservative planning estimates where no published per-unit figure exists — a return/office or sick-revisit visit handled at $120–125, a 72-hour urgent-care return at $125, a day-of-procedure cancellation at $2,000 (published ranges run higher), and front-desk time at $22/hr. Replace any of these with your own contracted numbers. Human-healthcare readmission and ED-visit costs are payer/hospital costs, shown separately and excluded from clinic payback. Veterinary figures are industry benchmarks and reflect recovered/retained revenue (recheck, preventive-care visits at the ~$153 average invoice, plus client retention) rather than cost avoidance; overlapping recovered-visit rows were consolidated to avoid double-counting. Weekly baselines, reach rate, and improvement rates are your own estimates. These figures are for planning — not a guarantee.