Why does getting blood tests require a doctor??

It would be stupid to go swallow WTH on self-medication and then die of a treatment you in fact never needed....
To be fair, the OP never mentioned medication, only blood tests. I do think it's reasonable to require a doctors prescription for certain medications.
 
The OP raised two points that aren’t related to each other:

1) Why does it take a doctor’s order to get blood work done?
2) Medical costs in the USA are expensive.


Getting blood tests performed on consumer demand would clog the system and raise costs. The demand for blood tests would skyrocket, and that would drive up the cost of testing. And the false-positive results of patient self-diagnosis would further drive up medical costs, while impeding access to medical care for those who really need it.

While we’re discussing medical costs, I would take a close look at who convinced you that blood tests are “a great indicator of overall health” or that there’s any value to getting them performed once a month.

It is not the be all end all of health. But it certainly sheds light on things that could cause problems if left unchecked. Why would more business, increase the cost?
 
To be fair, the OP never mentioned medication, only blood tests. I do think it's reasonable to require a doctors prescription for certain medications.
Yes...nothing with medications. But blood values shouldn't be held hostage by cost and time. It should not be a luxury to know what is floating around in your system.
 
Why is it a fucking chore to get your blood values? You shouldn't need a doctor's permission...it's my God damned blood! Do you need a doctor's note to give blood at the blood bank? NO!

Labs are considered a great indicator of overall health and helps individuals realize what they may need to change in order to turn things around. Don't get me going on the cost either! These simple tests have been around for decades and the cost and ease should be better(I'm talking standard tests, not latest weird this or that). I'd like to get my values once a month for a $100. That's reasonable. Cost of things goes down over time...but not in the medical bullshit world. Under this logic flat screen TV's would still cost $10,000.

It's all about mitigating liability. Letting a patient see blood values without the filter of the explanation of the meaning of the results by a competent health care provider can and most assuredly has caused problems

(since no rule like this doesn't come from some sort of lawsuit where a lab got sued because they interpreted their own results and made a stupid self health care decision that resulted in their own injury or worse)

When patients read their lab results and do something stupid or against medical advice because they think that they know more than the doctor because they googled something, they'll do something dumb, and then they or their family sue.

Labs are considered a great indicator of overall health when interpreted by someone who is trained and has the clinical acumen to do so and then discuss the results with the patient, and that's not you, my dude.

Oh and by the way, they are not 'simple' tests. The blood draw is about the simplest part. They take a great deal of training and theoretical understanding in order to do some of these correctly. A medical lab scientist (MLS) has at least a 4-year degree (many hold Master's and Ph.D degrees in their field).

Lastly, there's HIPAA and JACHO to consider. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act has created a legal environment where the distribution of personal health information (PHI) is a complete minefield, which can result in massive fines for the organization no matter how well they thought they were interpreting the bizarre and draconian rules set forth.
 
I had a short stint of type 2 diabetes. I was able to correct it by losing weight and changing my diet. You don’t need to be a physician to read and interpret your a1c and glucose results.

Monthly blood tests seems excessive though. Things like liver, a1c and others need readings 3 months between tests according to my dr. I agree with OP that you should be able to get your blood tested without a dr getting involved. This sounds more like a policy though. Maybe you can find a place that will draw and send to the lab without a dr. order.
 
There is always the option of going old school:

33699.jpg

Leeches freak me out!!

My son just got back from Peru..spent a week of his honeymoon on the Amazon River in a research center.. He got home and shared some of the pics he took while there.....

There are some BFL's
(Big F....ing Leeches)in that jungle.


sorry for the derail.
 
Why would more business, increase the cost?
Increased demand for a product or service drives prices up.

Remember Beanie Babies? Wild speculation drove demand up through the roof, and prices skyrocketed. Eventually, the demand plummeted to almost nothing, and prices tanked.
 
Who READS articles any more.. I browse headlines ... LOL :)

Actually, yes.. I DID read it..

It's just that a lot of cynical people would immediately go to "Oh they're just trying to get everybody on ACE inhibitors and make money". No, it's that a significant enough proportion of the population is having HTN-related etiology despite being "in the window". When that happens, the criteria has to change.
 
I had a short stint of type 2 diabetes. I was able to correct it by losing weight and changing my diet. You don’t need to be a physician to read and interpret your a1c and glucose results. YES YOU DO. You want your doctor engaged. I'm not saying you need to call your doctor with your sugar numbers before every meal, but you should be logging and watching trends and engaging with your nutritionist and diabetes nurse and your endocrinologist.

Monthly blood tests seems excessive though. Depends on what is being tested. Things like liver, a1c and others need readings 3 months between tests according to my dr. Blood sugar and insulin levels can change wildly throughout the day depending on a wide variety of variables. A1C changes gradually over a period of 2-3 months and is a great indicator of "trend". I agree with OP that you should be able to get your blood tested without a dr getting involved. This sounds more like a policy though. Maybe you can find a place that will draw and send to the lab without a dr. order.

Another reason this isn't allowed is because of insurance. Insurance companies don't want to pay for expensive and unnecessary labs. Hypochondriacs abusing the capacity of labs constantly wanting lab tests without good reason other than to satisfy their hypochondriasis or their Munchausen's-by-proxy by their dragging their kinds in to get stuck unnecessarily would stress an already overloaded system.

Cutting your doctor out of your healthcare is the opposite of what you want. You want to make your conversations about your lab results and everything about your health a productive conversation with your doctor. If you go into your appointment with no questions and things you want to talk about, you're doing yourself a disservice. In the days and weeks leading up to your appointment, you should be jotting down everything that's bothering you or that you don't understand. If you're going to use Dr. Google, use it to formulate the topics and organize your thoughts and concerns that you want to discuss.

If you just going in with "Everything's fine" and don't engage you're wasting your time, your money, and the opportunity you are paying for to get a doctors undivided attention. That's what you're paying for.
 
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Labs are considered a great indicator of overall health when interpreted by someone who is trained and has the clinical acumen to do so and then discuss the results with the patient...
Labs, when properly conducted and evaluated, are indicators of certain aspects of your health. Proper evaluation of your overall health requires a lot more than blood work.
 
Totally right; except for very specific goals, more than 2/year is totally unuseful.
I dunno, I've read that a blood test can vary a lot depending on what time of day, prior diet and activity, etc. You might adjust your lifestyle because of some blood test data point, but the sample size of one is too small and that data point you're orienting your life around might be an outlier. It seems to me that blood tests should be done 2/year, but also several times over a course of couple weeks in each of those 2/year occurrences.
 
It's all about mitigating liability. Letting a patient see blood values without the filter of the explanation of the meaning of the results by a competent health care provider can and most assuredly has caused problems

(since no rule like this doesn't come from some sort of lawsuit where a lab got sued because they interpreted their own results and made a stupid self health care decision that resulted in their own injury or worse)

When patients read their lab results and do something stupid or against medical advice because they think that they know more than the doctor because they googled something, they'll do something dumb, and then they or their family sue.

Labs are considered a great indicator of overall health when interpreted by someone who is trained and has the clinical acumen to do so and then discuss the results with the patient, and that's not you, my dude.

Oh and by the way, they are not 'simple' tests. The blood draw is about the simplest part. They take a great deal of training and theoretical understanding in order to do some of these correctly. A medical lab scientist (MLS) has at least a 4-year degree (many hold Master's and Ph.D degrees in their field).

Lastly, there's HIPAA and JACHO to consider. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act has created a legal environment where the distribution of personal health information (PHI) is a complete minefield, which can result in massive fines for the organization no matter how well they thought they were interpreting the bizarre and draconian rules set forth.

My dad was an MD...I get it.... But I'm saying if someone charged a monthly fee to be able to test normal blood panels, it would be ideal for me. I powerlift and bodybuild and I want to know what my diet and workouts is causing inside my body. I understand a nurse needs to draw the blood and the machines cost money to operate and maintain. But the cost of business is not that different from a lot of other businesses. Yet they price things crazy. I just went to a TRT clinic(testosterone replacement therapy) and they gave me a bunch of panels to do. If I had not had insurance it would have cost over $5000! That is fucking insane. PERIOD. My insurance, my blood and I can't just get the results...no they are held ransom at the TRT clinic. I cannot get the results from the clinic directly. That's ridiculous.
 
My dad was an MD...I get it.... But I'm saying if someone charged a monthly fee to be able to test normal blood panels, it would be ideal for me. I powerlift and bodybuild and I want to know what my diet and workouts is causing inside my body. I understand a nurse needs to draw the blood and the machines cost money to operate and maintain. But the cost of business is not that different from a lot of other businesses. Yet they price things crazy. I just went to a TRT clinic(testosterone replacement therapy) and they gave me a bunch of panels to do. If I had not had insurance it would have cost over $5000! That is fucking insane. PERIOD. My insurance, my blood and I can't just get the results...no they are held ransom at the TRT clinic. I cannot get the results from the clinic directly. That's ridiculous.

A nurse doesn't need to draw your blood, a phlebotomist does that.

The cost of business is actually really high for a lab. Everything is done with sterilized, single use plastics and expensive reagents. The record keeping has to be flawless. The work itself is time consuming. So, it wouldn't cost any less.

You insurance, your blood, their liability. That's the part I'm trying to drive home.
They have to protect themselves against the stupid things people do. Thank a lawyer.

So here we get to the crux of the story: you're a bodybuilder. This actually explains quite a bit.

Here's a scenario: Say you were using anabolics and HGH off-label and getting your own blood tested and using those numbers with an unlicensed unqualified back alley strength coach. I was in the military, I know what goes on in gyms. You or he messes up and you get hurt. You go into kidney failure, liver failure, heart failure, whatever. Coach guy doesn't want to go to jail so he splits town, so what do you do? Sue the lab, right? Can't sue the doctor, because you cut him out of the loop. Try to float that the numbers weren't right which caused you to incorrectly dose, etc. Any half dead personal injury lawyer can get you some money behind that.

That's just one of many possible reasons why labs protect themselves.
 
Interesting topic, but and while I get @Tremonti 's AND @USMC_Trev 's perspectives... the price for a full blood workup IS OUTRAGEOUS !!
I know the one I had done back in Jan this year was about $6,000 !!!! :eyes:

Because of my insurance and the "deal" the lab has with the doc, I didn't have any out-of-pocket expenses, and the lab accepts insurance coverage payments. The better part is that the total goes against my insurance "out of pocket", so I was at 100% [family] coverage - IOW, ZERO payments for the rest of year.
Makes one want to game the system and get bloodwork done every January :)
 
A nurse doesn't need to draw your blood, a phlebotomist does that.

The cost of business is actually really high for a lab. Everything is done with sterilized, single use plastics and expensive reagents. The record keeping has to be flawless. The work itself is time consuming. So, it wouldn't cost any less.

You insurance, your blood, their liability. That's the part I'm trying to drive home.
They have to protect themselves against the stupid things people do. Thank a lawyer.

So here we get to the crux of the story: you're a bodybuilder. This actually explains quite a bit.

Here's a scenario: Say you were using anabolics and HGH off-label and getting your own blood tested and using those numbers with an unlicensed unqualified back alley strength coach. I was in the military, I know what goes on in gyms. You or he messes up and you get hurt. You go into kidney failure, liver failure, heart failure, whatever. Coach guy doesn't want to go to jail so he splits town, so what do you do? Sue the lab, right? Can't sue the doctor, because you cut him out of the loop. Try to float that the numbers weren't right which caused you to incorrectly dose, etc. Any half dead personal injury lawyer can get you some money behind that.

That's just one of many possible reasons why labs protect themselves.
I'm a large commercial insurance advisor. I know what insurance costs are for labs. I understand costs. But $5 k for blood is nuts. Period.
 
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