Lab Services

Lab Services

Lab testing

Healthy Heart Screening

We offer these tests at a minimal markup as a way to improve your access to preventative services; our part to help stem the appalling rate of cardiovascular disease in the U.S. The ‘average’ person in the U.S. has a risk of heart attack THREE times greater than the low risk groups !

You can simply present any morning and ask for these tests. Most tests need you to be fasting (nothing but water for at least 8 hours), well and healthy with no recent injury, to give the most accurate results. Note~Screening lab tests are usually not covered by insurance*, prices are the cash discount pre-pay price. You will receive a copy of the results and a report explaining the results in the mail within a few weeks.

Everyone should have these first two by age 18.

Fasting Lipid profile ($20*) and Cardiac C-Reactive Protein ($25*).

Everyone over 30 should have all of the following every 5 years; I recommend almost every one simply get our “screening Panel” $65* (Fasting Lipid profile, Cardiac C-Reactive Protein, Complete Blood Count, Complete Metabolic Profile, TSH and T-4 Thyroid tests, Magnesium)

Additional tests to consider

Oxidative Stress Analysis $119*

Cardiovascular Homocysteine $33*

Apo A1 + B + Ratio $35

CardioGenomic Profie $399

Co-Enzyme Q-10 $45

Can we save you Money?

Why do we work so hard to save you money? The only people who pay full retail price for lab tests are those who pay out of their pocket (no insurance or those on deductible). Insurance companies NEVER pay retail, and I can not in good conscious charge a patient what I see as an obscene markup. Insurance companies also almost never pay for screening tests.

Real life example from early 2005~The patient ‘KNEW’ that his new insurance would pay for his screening tests and they were not subject to deductible. If he had paid a cash discount price for these screening tests (Prostate, cholesterol etc) we would have charged him $92. If we had used our main reference lab and billed insurance we would have charged $280 (we set our prices at the maximum the insurance will pay which is always less than retail (a legal way to charge you less than retail if it is applied to deductible). In this case his insurance required us to send these labs to their lab, they would have paid but he was still on deductible so they billed him and collected $722 !

The normal method of billing for labs is to have the reference lab bill your insurance directly. If you have good insurance and are not still meeting deductible this works well, however if your insurance does not pay well or you are still meeting deductible this may cost you 4 to 8 times as much !!!!

What we have done in the past was to have the lab bill us directly at wholesale prices, and we bill your insurance (made us about $5 and saved you a lot of money). This no longer works as some insurance plans pay us a LOT less than what we pay at wholesale prices! If you were on deductible we would then offer you a cash discount if you paid within 30 days (passing the saving on to you). Our lawyer tells us that if we want to stay out of jail we can no longer offer discounts after billing to patients who have insurance and so stopped in 2001.

If you have any insurance that applies lab costs to deductible and you are still meeting deductible it will save you money to pay us a cash discounted price for the lab and ignore insurance. If you have Wal-Mart, Blue Cross, most United Health Care and some Cox plans and are meeting deductible, IT WILL SAVE YOU MONEY and depending on the plan it might save you money to just pay us a cash discount price even after you have met your deductible.

April 2005~Several patients have taken our receipt showing that they have paid us for lab tests and have tried to file these with their insurance to meet deductible or for reimbursement. We have been informed that since some insurance companies now pay for screening tests, we CAN NOT OFFER cash discounted lab tests to patients with insurance. Only in the event that a patient gets upset and demands this service, and is willing to sign a waiver can we still offer this service.

Specific Lab / test information

For detailed information on individual lab tests go to www.questdiagnostics.com/kbase/default.htm, the Quest Diagnostics patient education site. All of our routine lab tests and most unusual tests are done by Quest or one of their partners (Nichols and MetaMetrix).

SAVE GAS ? Is there a Quest drawing station near you that could save you a trip to the clinic or for times when you are traveling ? Click here to find out.

The majority of the more unusual lab tests we do are done through Genova Diagnositcs. For more information, their site is www.gdx.net

For testing of multiple vitamins and minerals as a screening tests we use www.metametrix.com

MetaMetrix is the lab that Optimal Health Associates / ProCare4U use for everything except hair testing (we are a collecting site for OptimalHealth/ProCare, $37 fee for collections and processing/shipping – be sure to schedule in advance and confirm that any specific test collection kits are in stock). Their sites www.OptimalHealthAssociates.com and www.ProCare4U.org provide lots of information about the concept of screening for nutritional deficiencies (primary or caused by medications) as a root cause of many health conditions. They have a program to use in life threatening situation (ie. you have a loved one in the hospital and the hospital will not provide or allow you to provide nutritional therapy for known problems. Their program will essentially REQUIRE the hospital to either allow this or to permit you to supply this.

Are you 20 – 35 years old and feel GREAT?

In addition to the Healthy Heart you may want to consider both testing so that we can establish baselines of what your specific hormone levels need to be in case you ever have problems in the future and a review of risk factors.

Women ~ I recommend the saliva test (3 estrogens, progesterone, testosterone). I DO NOT RECOMMEND blood testing for estrogens! We can consider DHEA, DHEA-S and the sex binding hormones.

Men ~ Have it easier. I recommend Testosterone & Progesterone levels (and consider DHEA / DHEA-S), all of which can be done from blood or saliva tests.

Both ~ You should have a review of your family history and lifestyle done to determine if there are any additional tests that should be done to keep you healthy and to identify risk factors that would necessitate additional screening tests or starting the standard screening tests at a younger age. You may want to consider viewing nutritional supplements & Glyconutritionals from a “Wellness Insurance” viewpoint – to improve your chances of staying well and feeling great.

Some insurance companies require that we use a specific lab.

Lab One ~ If your insurance provided you with a ‘Lab One’ card www.labone.com it is usually a very good deal. You will usually have NO additional charges for any medically indicated lab tests.

Cox ~ If you have Cox insurance (www.Coxnet.org) you need to know EXACTLY what your insurance will pay and what it will not pay. Most Cox insurance plans pay very poorly for lab tests. It is usually (always if you are still on deductible, most of the time for most plans, but NOT for some plans after deductible) significantly less expensive to have the same test done under our discounted CASH PAY lab program and to not use you Cox insurance. We can not know which specific plan you have and how it will pay! You must find this information (Hint: talk to co-workers or your Human Resource person). If you wish to take advantage of our CASH PAY discount program you must tell us that you want to pay for the lab tests yourself and not use your insurance.

LabCorp ~ www.LabCorp.com usually offers fairly good service and fairly reasonable prices. Once again you need to know how well your specific insurance plan will pay for lab tests in order for you to decide if you should use your insurance or take advantage of our CASH PAY discount program.