Digital Therapeutics Cost Calculator
Per-patient cost for digital health interventions.
About this calculator
Total program cost has no single dominant input — patient count, treatment duration, and monthly license fee each carry a similar, substantial share of the total, because all three multiply together directly in the largest cost component (total licensing cost) and patient count and treatment duration each additionally appear in the clinician-oversight and patient-support cost terms as well. This is different from calculators where one input clearly outweighs the rest: here, a program that grows in patient count, extends its treatment duration, or negotiates a lower license fee will each see a meaningfully different total cost, and none of those three levers is structurally more powerful than the others. Clinician hours per patient and clinician hourly rate matter less individually since they only combine in the smaller clinician-oversight cost term, and platform monthly cost matters least of all inputs modeled, since it is a single fixed monthly fee that doesn't scale with patient count the way licensing does.
The net-per-patient output compares cost per patient against a flat $1,200 average DTx reimbursement assumption — a placeholder representing typical prescription digital therapeutic reimbursement, not a specific payer's actual rate, so a negative net-per-patient result signals the program's per-patient cost exceeds that reference reimbursement level rather than definitively proving the program is unprofitable under any particular contract. This model carries a real limitation: 100% of prescribed patients are assumed to complete their full treatment duration and generate the full licensing cost, when real-world DTx adherence and completion rates are often well below 100%, which would lower actual per-patient costs below what a full-duration assumption projects.
Medical Disclaimer
This calculator is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before making decisions about your health. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking it because of results from this tool.
Inputs
Results
Total Program Cost ($)
$117,000.00
≈ 8 used cars
Cost per Patient ($)
$1,170.00
How to Use This Calculator
- Enter the number of patients enrolled in the digital therapeutics program.
- Set the monthly license fee per patient and the treatment duration in months.
- Enter clinician hours per patient and the clinician hourly rate to estimate oversight labor cost.
- Set the monthly platform cost for the DTx management platform and EHR integration.
- Review the Total Program Cost, Cost per Patient, and Cost per Patient/Month, plus the Licensing and Clinician cost totals and Net per Patient vs. Avg Reimbursement.
How the result changes with Number of Patients
| Number of Patients | Total Program Cost ($) | Cost per Patient ($) |
|---|---|---|
| 50 | $61,500.00 | $1,230.00 |
| 75 | $89,250.00 | $1,190.00 |
| 150 | $172,500.00 | $1,150.00 |
| 250 | $283,500.00 | $1,134.00 |
What each input means
- Number of Patients
- Total patients to be enrolled in the DTx program.
- License Fee ($/patient/month)
- Monthly software license cost per patient for the DTx product.
- Treatment Duration (months)
- Length of the prescribed digital therapy program.
- Clinician Hours per Patient
- Total clinician oversight hours per patient (enrollment, check-ins, titration).
- Clinician Hourly Rate ($)
- Loaded hourly cost of the supervising clinician.
- Platform Cost ($/month)
- Monthly cost for the DTx management platform and EHR integration.
What each result means
- Total Program Cost ($)
- All-in cost to run the digital therapeutics program.
- Cost per Patient ($)
- Total cost divided by number of enrolled patients.
- Cost per Patient/Month ($)
- Monthly per-patient cost over the treatment duration.
- Total Licensing Cost ($)
- Aggregate software license fees for all patients.
- Total Clinician Cost ($)
- Aggregate clinician oversight labor cost.
- Net per Patient vs Avg Reimbursement ($)
- Per-patient margin assuming ~$1,200 average DTx reimbursement.
How this is calculated
Worked example, using the default values
- Identify Input Parameters4 parametersNumber of Patients = 100, License Fee ($/patient/month) = 300, Treatment Duration (months) = 3, Clinician Hours per Patient = 2 = 6 input(s) provided
- Calculate Total Program CostTotal Program Cost = totalLicenseCost + totalClinicianCost + totalPlatformCost + patientSupportCost117000 = $117,000
- Calculate Cost per PatientCost per Patient = totalCost / patientCount1170 = $1,170
- Calculate Cost per Patient/MonthCost per Patient/Month = costPerPatient / treatmentMonths390 = $390
- Calculate Total Licensing CostTotal Licensing Cost = licenseFeePerMonth * treatmentMonths * patientCount90000 = $90,000
Engine last updated . Checked against 2 independently-derived tests — how we verify calculators. Built by Paul Gunder, a software engineer, not a licensed financial, medical, or legal professional.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which input matters most to total program cost — patient count, treatment duration, or license fee?
None of the three dominates the others; they carry a broadly similar share of the total, since all three combine directly in the largest cost component (total licensing cost equals license fee times treatment months times patient count) and patient count and treatment duration also appear independently in the clinician-oversight and patient-support cost terms. A program can control its total cost by adjusting any of the three, and none of them offers outsized leverage over the others the way a single dominant input would in a simpler formula.
Does the platform monthly cost scale with the number of patients enrolled?
No — platform monthly cost is a fixed fee applied once per month across the whole program duration, independent of how many patients are enrolled. This is different from the license fee, which is charged per patient per month and therefore scales directly with patient count. As a result, platform cost has the smallest per-input effect on total program cost among the inputs modeled, because it's the only cost component that doesn't scale with patient count at all — licensing and clinician-oversight costs both multiply directly by patient count, so growing enrollment grows the total against a platform-cost line that stays flat, making platform cost a shrinking share of an ever-larger total rather than a lever that moves the total the way patient count, treatment duration, or license fee do.
What does the $1,200 average reimbursement in Net per Patient actually represent?
It's a fixed placeholder figure meant to approximate typical reimbursement for an FDA-authorized prescription digital therapeutic, not a rate pulled from any specific payer contract. Net per Patient subtracts your calculated cost per patient from this flat $1,200 assumption, so the output is best read as a rough directional signal for whether the program's cost structure is in the right range relative to typical DTx reimbursement, not a guarantee of what any individual payer will actually reimburse.
How does treatment duration affect cost per patient versus cost per patient per month?
Cost per patient rises with treatment duration, since a longer program accumulates more months of licensing fees and platform cost allocation. Cost per patient per month, however, is cost per patient divided by treatment duration, so it can move in either direction depending on which cost components scale with duration (licensing, clinician oversight) versus which are more fixed (the flat $25 onboarding fee within patient support cost) — a longer program dilutes fixed one-time costs across more months even as total cost per patient grows.
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