After watching too many of his patients walk out of his office without taking the proper laboratory tests they needed, Dr. Doug Lefton decided to take the initiative to do something about it. Stating "it's a little heartbreaking when you have someone in your office and they need a blood test and they won't do it because they can't afford it", Dr. Lefton worked with Summit County Medical Society and LabCorp to create an alternative. Lefton struck a deal with these companeies that would lower the cost of these laboratory tests, not only Lefton's patients, but for everyone. The arrangement is simple. Patients living near a LabCorp office simply have to order a test through the Summit County Medical Society website, select the tests they need, give their doctor's fax number, pay with their credit card, and print out their order form. With their order form, they can go to any LabCorp office, take their test, and have their results sent to their doctor within 24 hours. Pretty nifty, huh? Lefton compares this process to "using Amazon.com to buy your lab tests."
A cholesterol test in Lefton's area can go as high as $148 dollars, for an uninsured patient, while the same test is $18 dollars through the website. Even patients already with health insurance are taking advantage of this low cost alternative. Jeff Hughey, a patient, needed a comprehensive metabolic profile, a lipid panel and a hemoglobin test for blood sugar. With health insurance, the 3 tests would have still cost him well over $400. But through this website, his total only came out to $50.45, including the $9.50 service charge.
What do you guys think about this alternative? Are there any possible drawbacks?
4 comments:
I think this is great for the people who cannot afford proper health care. My only concern is that there will not very much oversight of company. who is to say that the company can do this cheap testing because of low quality results or illegal animal testing. In the end I think that the pros out way the cons in a sense that those without the means can afford to take care of their health.
I find this to be an excellent idea. People who can't afford proper treatment should still be able to still get the treatment- at the least- for a better cost. I'm glad someone took the initiative to help those in need. Since simply neglecting a blood test can lead to a disease or other sort of illness becoming extremely worse in the long run.
What a nice guy! So the fact that the blood test was reduced by over $100 says a lot. That begs the question: where is all the extra money going? My guess is that it goes into the multi-faceted levels of bureaucracy. We really need to look at how to effectively cut the costs of medical care, and maybe it is cutting out the extra fat that is the management that may not need to be there.
I have a blog called NFPain.blogspot.com which is about people who have neurofibromatosis. My medical costs are through the roof, and I can no longer afford my insurance that was a backup for Medicare. I'm scared silly. I'm not sure the quality would be lowered....but I just had a $13,000 MRI!!! That's ridicuous...I know the MRI machines are expensive, but I've needed these tests all my life and at the same place....like everything else, the costs just keep escalating...and the machines are surely paid for by now.
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