Bypass the Doctor and Go Straight to the Lab
One chain of labs claims most of their 1,500 different tests generate results in 24 hours and cost as much as 80% less than when the same test is procured through a doctor.
Naturally, the medical establishment doesn’t like it.
Of course the medical establihment doesn’t like it. Innovations such as these empower patients and allow them to become real consumers in the medical marketplace.
I don’t understand this issue at all. First, most every doctor sends their tests out. They charge some small amount to draw blood or collect the sample, but the lab then charges the patient or the patient’s insurance. In fact, I’ve been to doctors that actually send you to the lab for them to take the samples and then do the tests.
As for “empowering patients”, are you telling me that patients should decide what lab tests they need done, in a country where in one survey 20% of adults believed the sun revolves around the earth?
Are they kidding? Quoted from their web site “Glucose, Fasting Initial test for detection of diabetes, known as the silent killer. You should fast 8 hours prior to this test $ 49.00” That is the highest OP price I have ever heard for a simple blood sugar.
Who says the medical establishment doesn’t like it? Why? With prices like this I would guess those few physicians left doing in house lab would be happy to compare prices. It doesn’t make much of a difference because most physicians are paid miniscule amounts for lab by managed care if they do it in house, certainly multiples less than the example above. If they are charging true fee for service they can add an interpretation fee.
These labs have come and gone for decades. There are established labs that have been around for decades that will do the work for a lot less money.
Lab is inexpensive. It is the decision making of what to order and how to interpret the tests that count.
Don’t journalists fact check their work or do they simply provide advertisements in their editorials (referring to Newscheif.com)?
The important point is: we need not be forced to go through a gatekeeper. If the doctor knows more than we do, we are free to ask his/her advice. If we know what we want and need, we do not have to seek that advice — or permission.
In the meantime, I predict that labs will start competing for patients based on price. And as John Goodman has repeatedly stressed, when they compete on price, they usually compete on quality as well.
Ken, competition would be fine, but you forget these clinics have been around for years coming and going in various areas. This is not a new phenomenon. Not only that but this particular lab was charging prices that were multiples of the going rate of most of managed care. If the physician is charging cash then he can simply raise the price of an office visit or add an interpretation fee. If one wanted to eliminate the physician all together they could, but I guess that is based upon state regulations.
If one simply wanted an A1c and blood sugar the charge is $98!!! Do you realize how high that price is? This editorial that we can link to almost sounds like an advertisement. One could buy a glucose machine and home test for sugar at a much lower price.