Article 1 of 1
HEALTH JOURNAL
Patients Bypass Doctors To Get Medical Tests Directly From Labs
By Tara Parker-Pope
06/08/2001
The Wall Street Journal
Page B1
(Copyright (c) 2001, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
ARE YOU WONDERING whether you have allergies, high cholesterol or prostate troubles, but haven't taken the time to see a doctor? Now, some of the nation's medical laboratories allow patients to bypass doctors and order their own medical tests.
Next week, the biggest U.S. lab company, Quest Diagnostics of Teterboro, N.J., will begin promoting its own direct-to-consumer testing program in five states. Patients will be able to walk into new QuestDirect retail centers and existing lab offices and order a variety of blood, urine or certain ultrasound tests without seeing a doctor. And lab test Web sites like HealthCheckUSA.com and CompleteBloodwork.com have also cropped up to help patients around the country find local labs where they can get tests performed without a visit to the doctor's office -- and often at a much lower price.
"Consumers are realizing that they need to take control over their own health," says Quest Vice President Hughes Bakewell.
But lab work can be expensive, and insurance rarely pays for a test requested by a patient. In addition, the practice is limited in some states, such as New York and California, where laws allow only medical personnel to order tests or receive the results. Nonetheless, some labs and Web sites get around those rules by having a doctor on staff order the tests and dispense the results to consumers, without requiring a patient exam or charging for a physician visit.
CRITICS ARE CONCERNED about the trend, wondering whether patients have the ability to properly interpret the test results or whether they may become unduly alarmed by a finding. They also say a serious health problem be missed if a doctor isn't involved. Or patients may improperly treat themselves if they do identify a problem.
But others believe consumers have the right to manage their own health. "There seems to be a reluctance in some quarters to trust patients with their own medical information," says Henry Soloway, a doctor and the director of Associated Pathologists Laboratories in Las Vegas, which administers lab tests to consumers who ask for them. "My position has been that if you're smart enough to order the test and you'd like that information, there should be nothing in the world to keep you from having that information."
Quest offers lab services directly to consumers in Colorado, Montana, Missouri, Kansas and Utah, where state laws are amenable to the practice. Some of the QuestDirect sites are in strip shopping centers, and the stores are filled with cozy sofas and chairs in an attempt to look more like a living room than a medical office. For $115, patients can get a package of tests called the Women's or Men's Health Profile, which assesses a patient's blood for cholesterol, kidney, liver and thyroid health markers, warning signs for diabetes and anemia screening, among other things. A $150 package includes an osteoporosis risk test for women or a prostate cancer screening for men.
For most tests, customers usually can get next-day results through the Questest.com Web site using a private password. All the tests are reviewed by a physician, and the customer is called if a result is worrisome or needs immediate attention.
SEVERAL WEB SITES help consumers find labs that will perform a variety of blood tests: cholesterol and heart-disease screening, HIV and drug tests, blood allergy tests and cancer screening. To use the sites, consumers generally select a test and pay for it in advance. Customers receive a special form in the mail and take it to a nearby lab facility, where they have their blood drawn. The results are usually mailed or faxed within one to two weeks.
For the past few years, the Personal Diagnostic Center in Overland Park, Kan., has advertised its services directly to consumers, offering everything from cholesterol screening to drug and allergy tests. "People would come in and say, `I haven't been to the doctor in so long, it's so much trouble," says John Halsey, medical director of IBT Reference Laboratory, which sold the center to Quest last fall.
HealthCheckUSA.com Director Holt Vaughan says many patients are worried about privacy and don't want test results to become part of their medical records. Men often request PSA prostate-cancer screening tests because they want to take the tests twice a year, but don't want to bother with a doctor's visit. The site's most popular offering is the VIP-plus package, which for $75 includes about 40 different blood screenings including thyroid, cholesterol, liver and kidney profiles.
Completebloodwork.com offers a $59.95 general health test that screens for cholesterol, thyroid and blood-cell counts, among other things. For $195, women can order the CA-125 blood test -- a controversial test women often demand as a way to detect ovarian cancer, even though most doctors don't believe it is a meaningful screening test.
Founder Steve Merritt says he started the site after his own doctor refused to order a PSA test because his insurance wouldn't cover it. "The HMOs don't have the right to make a decision on what test you get," says Mr. Merritt.
HealthscreenAmerica.com operates a lab and scanning center in Jacksonville, Fla., and has plans to build new centers in Atlanta, Houston, Boston and Philadelphia. The firm offers a $2,200 "diamond" package that offers blood tests for heart disease, cancer and other health markers, as well as ultrasound and CT body scans.
---
E-mail comments to healthjournal@wsj.com.
(See related letter: "Letters to the Editor: Don't Bypass the Doc" -- WSJ June 20, 2001)
If you missed it, you can go to either a SHORT explanation of the whole story, or a detailed explanation on ONE PAGE. On this page you are getting more detail on one part of the story, but on either of those pages you can get the broad picture. Don't miss reading one of them. You can actually spend many hours on this web site, depending on the depth of research and reading you want to do. There are an amazing 4,000 pages here -- more information on these general subjects than almost all other web sites combined! At some point along the way you will probably say, "Karl's crazy," and leave never to return to this site, or you will say "I want to try some of that oral chelation formula he writes about!"
|
I promise to answer your message -- click here to send me a personal message
|
SUBSCRIBE: The Wednesday Letter is a free electronic monthly newsletter written and published by Karl Loren. You can view more than 50 back issues of this publication by clicking here. The Wednesday Letter subscription list is maintained on a secure server, no name is ever given or sold to anyone, and it is never used except for this Newsletter. It is automatically published on the Tuesday night just before the first Wednesday of every month. You can subscribe to this free monthly electronic letter by entering your eMail address and name below. You will then automatically receive a request for confirmation, sent to whatever address you have entered. If you do NOT receive this confirmation request, then you will not be subscribed. There may have been an error with your address and you should resubmit. The letter is never sent twice to the same address -- so you do not have to worry about a duplicate subscription. When you receive this confirmation request you must reply to it, or your subscription will not become active. No one can subscribe your name, and address, without you being notified, and if you get an unwanted notice of subscription you only need to DO NOTHING and the subscription will NOT be active.
REMOVAL: You can remove yourself from the subscription list in several different ways. Click here to read about this entire newsletter system. Every edition of The Wednesday Letter is delivered to your address with YOUR name and address in view on the letter, with a link that allows you to remove THAT name from the subscription list. If you try to send this removal message from an address different from the one you used to send in your original confirmation, then you will get a warning notice first, sent to the subscription address, asking you to confirm that you want to be removed from the list -- by replying to THAT request for confirmation, you will then be automatically removed. Thus, no one else can unsubscribe you, from some other computer, without your knowledge. But, if you send in the unsubscribe notice from the same machine used to receive the Letter, then the removal from the subscription list is automatic.
Personal Message: When you send a personal message to Karl Loren, you will receive a personal reply as per his instructions. Karl pledges that every personal message will get a personal answer. When you provide your mail address, we will send you free information including our free catalog and a cassette tape lecture by Karl Loren about heart disease, no charge, by mail, even if outside the US. You can select particular information you would like to receive, along with the free cassette tape and catalog.
You can reach Vibrant Life in many ways, including by mail to Vibrant Life, 2808 N. Naomi St., Burbank, CA 91504. Within the US and Canada, use the toll free number: (800) 523-4521, the local number: (818) 558-1799, the FAX: (818) 558-7299, eMail to kimberly@oralchelation.com or any one of the hundreds of message forms throughout the 50 web sites. Vibrant Life normally ships the same day we get an order. There are message forms on each of the 100,000+ pages on this and other sites where you can communicate with Vibrant Life. Check out our companion site, at: http://www.oralchelation.net where Karl's 2000 page book is published. Karl Loren is the author and webmaster for this BOOK, as well as for another web site about ORAL CHELATION. His personal philosophical articles are at PHILOSOPHY.
Copyright © May 20, 2008 6:25 AM by Karl Loren on behalf of Vibrant Life, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Permission is granted for non-commercial downloading, copying, distribution or redistribution on two conditions: One, that some form of copyright notice is included in every copy distributed or copied, showing the copyright belonging to Vibrant Life, Burbank, CA, at www.oralchelation.com . The second condition is that the material is not to be used for any purpose contrary to the purposes and objectives of this site. This permission does not extend to materials on this site which are copyrighted by others.
Click here to add the Wednesday Letter as a Channel on your desktop. Only available to Internet Explorer users. You will be guided through a series of simple questions (about subscription information). With this feature operating you can click on the Wednesday Letter channel at any time to read the most recent copy of this electronic letter.
You can reach Vibrant Life in many ways, including by mail to Vibrant Life, 2808 N. Naomi St., Burbank, CA 91504. Within the US and Canada, use the toll free number: (800) 523-4521, the local number: (818) 558-1799, the FAX: (818) 558-7299, eMail to kimberly@oralchelation.com or any one of the hundreds of message forms throughout the 50 web sites. Vibrant Life normally ships the same day we get an order. There are message forms on each of the 100,000+ pages on this and other sites where you can communicate with Vibrant Life. Check out our companion site, at: http://www.oralchelation.net where Karl's 2000 page book is published. Karl Loren is the author and webmaster for this BOOK, as well as for another web site about ORAL CHELATION. His personal philosophical articles are at PHILOSOPHY.
Copyright © May 20, 2008 6:25 AM by Karl Loren on behalf of Vibrant Life, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Permission is granted for non-commercial downloading, copying, distribution or redistribution on two conditions: One, that some form of copyright notice is included in every copy distributed or copied, showing the copyright belonging to Vibrant Life, Burbank, CA, at www.oralchelation.com . The second condition is that the material is not to be used for any purpose contrary to the purposes and objectives of this site. This permission does not extend to materials on this site which are copyrighted by others.
