Table 3.

Recommendations for a Successful Fee-for-Service Approach

Recommendation	Considerations
An outreach program (which could feature seminars, phone calls, or face-to-face meetings) should be established which acquaint the potential user base with the functions and value of the biobank. Also, new fee schedules should be sent to investigators well in advance, along with an explanation for the changes.	As with any business, it is important to establish and maintain good communications with the user base. The more proactive and value-driven those communications are, the better. If an academic setting, the potential value of the bank as a scientific resource to support grant proposals can be stressed.
All external benefits yielded from biobank services (such as grants or publications that result at least partially from biobank resources), should be periodically summarized and communicated.	Biorepository users, institutional or grant support sources, and other stakeholders may justifiably demand an accounting of benefit and quality in return for the costs incurred, and so impact metrics may be needed.
Quality and accreditation standards (as relevant) should be maintained and communicated to the user base and to stakeholders.	Besides good customer service, good quality assurance procedures help ensure support for a fee-for-service mechanism. The new College of American Pathologists (CAP) biobank accreditation program, once broadly implemented, could potentially serve as a quality standard for resource investments and service-based fees.7,8
Fee-for-service subsidies for certain institutional or other affiliations can be offered, as a way to incentivize requests from those sources, or to comply with institutional or philanthropic support.	The applicability of this recommendation will of course depend a great deal on the nature of the biobank, but it might promote business and enhance revenues long-term.
Financial support (i.e., defraying certain costs) may be considered for investigators conducting early “pilot” studies intended to secure subsequent grant opportunities. Such investigators may be those with the lease initial financial resources but good long-term potential.	The applicability of this recommendation will of course depend a great deal on the situation, but it might promote business and enhance revenues long-term, given the potential benefit of investing in early meritorious studies where financial barriers are initially present.
The biobank may wish to designate a given employee within its groups, and devote a segment of that person's time exclusively to billing and revenue activities.	This point will depend heavily on the size, complexity, and resources of the bank. However, it may be a good idea, given that efficient billing and revenue collection must underpin any successful business enterprise.