The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

Last year, Big Sandy Medical Center began offering a service called Patient Directed Testing. This is an opportunity for you as the patient, to choose which labs you’d like to have collected without needing a provider’s order to do so. For example, let’s say one of your longest friends just learned he has prostate cancer and it makes you think long and hard about those suggested lab tests that you should be getting done regularly. After years of avoidance, you finally call to get in with your regular doctor and they are scheduling 6 months out (popular provider!). You don’t want to see someone else, but you also don’t want to wait for 6 months to get caught up on your lab work. So instead, you come to Big Sandy Medical Center, register at the lab, and order the tests you’d like completed right now. The Lab will calculate your total cost, you will pay up front, then get your blood drawn and the tests will be completed. In just a few days your results will be mailed to you, or accessible on your patient portal, or they can even be sent straight to your provider so they are there waiting by the time your appointment comes around. Will you still need to keep your regular visits with your provider? Yes, that would be recommended. However, you can now walk into those visits empowered with information and even bring yourself some peace of mind in the meantime.

Maybe you have started a new nutrition plan and would like to watch your cholesterol or A1c every few months to see if there is improvement. Or you suffer from frequent UTIs and want to confirm your symptoms before starting another round of antibiotics. Do you need a Covid-19 PCR test for travel? You can walk in and get one without needing a doctor’s visit! You certainly have a lot of options through patient directed testing and each of them allows you to save money, time, and be more involved with your own wellness.

Here is one of the best parts, since you pay up front, you pay less. The whole process is completed between you and the lab staff. They register you; they do the billing; they do the lab draw and complete the tests. It is a “one-stop-shop” so to speak. The simplicity of not having alternative staff that register, accept payment, bill your insurance company, wait for their payment, then bill you for the remainder, takes a lot of man hours out of the process. That means the service can be delivered for less! If you do have insurance, you can receive a receipt to submit towards your deductible, so it is a win-win!

It is important to understand that your insurance WILL NOT be billed for this service. If you want these lab tests to go through your insurance company they must be ordered by a provider. But depending on your insurance coverage, you might save money by not having them ran through your insurance. For example, a patient was recently in to have some blood work done. His fee for the day, after having some of his routine annual labs completed (CMP, CBC, Lipid Panel, Hgb A1c, and Vitamin D) came to a total of $235.00. Had he run that same set of tests through his insurance company, they would have been $776.00! As he had not met his deductible yet, the entirety of the cost would have been out of pocket for him. That is quite a savings and he can still submit that towards his deductible for the year.

The lab tests that are available to you through Patient Directed Testing include blood counts, cholesterol, thyroid tests, iron tests, diabetic screening, prostate screening, Urine drug tests and urinalysis, as well as the Covid-19 PCR. A more detailed list of the available tests can be found on the Medical Center Website at http://www.bsmc.org/lab. You will also find access to the form that needs completed prior to your blood draw. Having it completed prior to your arrival makes your visit that much faster but if technology is not your thing, it can be filled out upon your arrival to the facility.

The folks in the lab look forward to helping you reach your wellness goals in 2024. Come on in any time during business hours and get your lab work completed! Don’t forget to celebrate our great Lab employees, Dave and Mike, this week April 14-20 is National Lab Week!