I’ve talked to a lot of people who believe you need an order from your doctor in order to get lab work done. While it’s true that you need a physician’s order for lab work, it is NOT true that you have to see a doctor to get that order. It is possible to get lab tests without a physician’s office visit. It works like this: You order and pay for the labs you want through a service like Health Tests Direct. A physician employed by the service writes the order for the tests you want. You download the order, print it out, and take it to the associated lab of your choice. The labs associated with Health Tests Direct are the same labs your regular doctor would send you to, and the same labs paid for by insurance companies—LabCorps and Quest Diagnostics. You can even choose which lab you’d like to use. There are LabCorps and/or Quest Diagnostics labs in most major towns, so you should be able to find one near you.
There are a lot of benefits to ordering your own lab work. Not the least of which is the freedom or order the labs YOU (or your doctor) want, as opposed to being limited to the lab work your insurance company will pay for. I have been surprised with the number of people who’ve told me that their doctor wanted to have one test done, but the patient’s insurance company didn’t pay for it, so the doctor couldn’t or wouldn’t write the order. Several other people I know wanted to have a very specific thyroid test done, but their doctor believed the test unnecessary and refused to order it. Of those people, two used a do-it-yourself lab and found the more detailed test provided exactly the information they needed to solve their health problems.
I remember when I was dealing with my as yet undiagnosed neurological issues. I asked for a Lyme test, and was refused because I lived in Phoenix, Arizona at the time. Lyme Disease is rare in the desert. My doctor refused to consider the possibility of Lyme even though I grew up playing in the woods on the East Coast. I never did have that Lyme test. As my health condition has improved with natural methods it’s become less important to me. But, getting that information early-on could have saved me a lot of pain and suffering.
I will tell you that I have never personally used Health Tests Direct. The recommendation for this company comes from my Primal Health Coach certification class. But, I have looked at the website, and their prices seem reasonable to me. There are two participating labs fairly close to my home, and I plan on using them in the future.
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