I have to admit that “complete unadulterated rape” is the thought that ran through my mind when I opened my bill from a commercial lab for blood tests that I recently had drawn. Yes, the need for health care reform is so obvious.

The bill for the following seven tests came to $946 dollars:

Lipid Panel

Testosterone, Free and Total

Thyroid Peroxidase (TPO)

TSH

Free T3

Free T4 

Test	Charges	Allowed
1	98.57	24.90
2	105.57	13.37
3	193.57	25.11
4	97.57	19.30
5	180.37	37.74
6	182.77	38.28
7	87.58	21.57
TOTAL	946.00	180.27

Out of the “allowed” charges, my insurance paid $144.22. What I am now praying for is that there is a “contract” between my insurance carrier and this Lab, or my bill for these seven tests will be $801.78! Who can afford this? Why are charges so inflated? As a way for lab companies to make income from the poor souls whose insurance is not contracted with the particular laboratory?

I spoke to my doctor about these charges and said from now on, it is back to www.canaryclub.org for my hormone tests. (My doctor had asked me to have the tests done by venous blood draw locally).

Thanks to their joint efforts, the Canary Club co-owners and the ZRT Laboratory have made hormone testing much more affordable. By ordering a home hormone test kit, one can receive Estradiol, Progesterone, Progesterone/Estradiol ratio, Testosterone, DHEA, Cortisol x 4, Free T4, Free T3, TSH, TPO, and Vitamin D (D2, D3, and Total) for $254.  The thyroid and Vitamin D tests are done by blood spot (finger prick) and the rest by saliva tests.

For lipid panels (cholesterol and tryiglycerides), check with your local hospitals to see if they have any special programs in place. In our area, I have found that the Resource Center for Seniors at Deaconess Hospital offers total cholesterol, HDL, LDL, and triglycerides for $27 the 4th Tuesday of the month at the Deaconess Gateway location and the 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, and 5^th Tuesdays of the month at the Deaconess downtown location. This test must be fasting. Hours of collection are 7:30 – 10:30 am. No appointment is necessary.

The blessing in this laboratory bill revelation is that it woke me up to the absolute need to pay attention to what is happening in the area of health care reform …and actively research where I can get future tests performed much more economically.

I pass this information along to you in the hope that it can prevent you from going through the painful shock of opening your laboratory bills.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 3rd, 2009 at 8:11 am and is filed under Hormone Balancing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.