LabCorp offering home self collection Covid test for $119

[Med Director New England]

I am surprised this took so long. Anyone can request kit, watch a video on YouTube showing collection technique, mail back to LC for testing. Supposedly there is a medical screen process to make sure you really need it but I imagine no one will be turned away who is willing to pay.

cost 119.00 - patient self pays
I bet the demand will be huge.

COVID-19 Test (At-Home Collection Kit)

Find out if you have COVID-19 without leaving home. Order your Labcorp at-home test kit, collect your nasal swab sample and ship it back to one of our world-class labs.

www.pixel.labcorp.com

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[LADoc00]

I'll take the bait: why would an individual, sitting at home, care if they are positive?? And why would spend their own money on it when they can get a free test from public health?

I dont see a demand for this at all. This is the zombie apocalypse movie where people want to know what those around them have but will live in denial of what they have until the moment they turn into a zombie.

There is so much free testing I dont see a biz angle in pure testing anymore. Also the price point is too high. The government is only paying 100 bucks for Medicare patients' tests.

Also who is ordering the test? How could this be CLIA compliant? Who acts on the result?

 

[deleted314957]

Well, with all this testing talk we had better define what is important and get some answers damned fast:

1. Who has it and is communicable.
2. Who has had it.
3. Who is immune and why. (humoral/ cellular)


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Med Director New England]

Quest is also offering antibody testing via
Quest Direct.
similar model. No doctor order. Patient self pays. Cost 119.

I hear from a good source they sold almost 1000 in the first 24 hrs.

Questdirect

questdirect.questdiagnostics.com

 

[Napoleon1801]

Quest is also offering antibody testing via
Quest Direct.
similar model. No doctor order. Patient self pays. Cost 119.

I hear from a good source they sold almost 1000 in the first 24 hrs.

Questdirect

questdirect.questdiagnostics.com

I've been lobbying our admins to offer COVID testing to the community under a self-pay model, but can't get any traction. I'm sure Quest and Lab Corp will do well in the vacuum.

 

[Med Director New England]

Interesting ^^
I just had a conversation / clinical consultatim with a local pcp about this today

she is getting numerous requests from patients to order Covid IGG serology but her employer has deemed the test to have no clinical value and at present she Is being discouraged from ordering it and being instructed to counsel patients that the test is not useful. She was asking me my thoughts on the test b/c she doesn’t agree. she is employed by an ACO and They have a capitated agreement in place for outpatient lab testing, so they are financially motivated to minimize all outpatient lab testing.

we spoke at length about the test, clinical significance, difference in quality of some of the POC offerings versus the abbot cmia platform. It seems like some non-laboratorians are lumping all of these tests together and not recognizing some are more reliable than others.

but it does look like some patients may have trouble getting serology testing ordered and may have to look into self pay options if they want to know.

 

[LADoc00]

"self pay" models for covid tests are getting alot of heat from CMS and insurance. Basically if you test a patient as self pay and they have Medicare, expect to be forced to pay that money back to the patient.

Also to the guy who was saying CMS had not changed the reimbursement from near 300 for PCR to 100 with the new codes was absolutely incorrect.

 

[Med Director New England]

I'll take the bait: why would an individual, sitting at home, care if they are positive?? And why would spend their own money on it when they can get a free test from public health?

I dont see a demand for this at all. This is the zombie apocalypse movie where people want to know what those around them have but will live in denial of what they have until the moment they turn into a zombie.

There is so much free testing I dont see a biz angle in pure testing anymore. Also the price point is too high. The government is only paying 100 bucks for Medicare patients' tests.

Also who is ordering the test? How could this be CLIA compliant? Who acts on the result?

patient orders the test.
the advertising material from LC claims they will answer questions and provide medical consultation related to the test result. I imagine they phone + back to patient directly with someone reading from a script in telling the patient what do to if + (stay home, the state dph has been notified and will call you, go to ED if you have trouble breathing with a mask on, call your PCP if you have one, etc). I don’t know anyone at LC so not sure how they handle it.

just posted this as informational for this group who may be interested to know, And not intending to judge LC or the model.

Q has been running this model for a while now for quite a few tests apparently.

 

[Med Director New England]

"self pay" models for covid tests are getting alot of heat from CMS and insurance. Basically if you test a patient as self pay and they have Medicare, expect to be forced to pay that money back to the patient.

Also to the guy who was saying CMS had not changed the reimbursement from near 300 for PCR to 100 with the new codes was absolutely incorrect.

the reimbursement changed, which I acknowledged. you were right all along about cms - is that what you want to hear. I don’t know how you knew this prior to the cms actually setting the value, but Kudos

 

[LADoc00]

the reimbursement changed, which I acknowledged. you were right all along about cms - is that what you want to hear. I don’t know how you knew this prior to the cms actually setting the value, but Kudos

I knew this because I can smell governmental f'ckery from a mile away. That's what happens when you join Uncle Sam's Misguided Children at the tender age of 17 and government then tries to send you on endless missions where they hope you die. You get quite suspicious after a bit...quite suspicious sir!

 

[deleted314957]

I knew this because I can smell governmental f'ckery from a mile away. That's what happens when you join Uncle Sam's Misguided Children at the tender age of 17 and government then tries to send you on endless missions where they hope you die. You get quite suspicious after a bit...quite suspicious sir!

AMEN ^^


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk