I would always recommend starting first with a physician in order to get medical testing that you need. They can give you their assessment on what tests are necessary and are much likely to be able to get insurance approval for tests that they refer. They can also save you from performing unnecessary tests which can be expensive and time-consuming.
Still, when dealing with a chronic illness you need to be your own advocate. If you’ve made it to this site you likely have your own personal experience with just how broken healthcare is, especially in the US. Getting testing usually requires a lengthy process of seeing a physician, trying to communicate your symptoms, and hoping that they have the expertise and responsibility to order the right tests. Usually many referrals are needed for more difficult cases and it’s common for physicians to miss testing important markers for rarer diseases. Giving patients the ability to find answers for themselves is an empowering tool in the diagnostic search for answers.
There are two major Lab testing providers in the United States: Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp. Over the past several years, a large number of websites have bee introduced allowing patients to “Order their own Labs;” the essence of this is that you can select the tests that you want from Quest or LabCorp’s catalog and a remote doctor will then sign off on these and order them for you. Note that it is unlikely that insurance will pay for these tests; however, in some cases you can use a Health Savings Account (HSA) or Flexible Spending Account (FSA) when using these services.
A list of excellent sites for getting personal lab testing done is listed here:
Ulta Lab Tests
My personal favorite, Ulta offers
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- True Health Labs
- dsfsdfdf
- Request a Test
- DirectLabs
- PersonalLabs
- Quest Direct
- New Century Labs
- True Health Labs
