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The Water Cooler
General Discussion
Is it really necessary to have blood drawn every year?
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<blockquote data-quote="tRidiot" data-source="post: 3278176" data-attributes="member: 9374"><p>Sorry, [USER=9374]@tRidiot[/USER] been working this morning, taking blood and screwing innocent people, don't ya know? lol</p><p></p><p>J/K.</p><p></p><p>All depends on health conditions. I don't know why you have $500 worth of labwork, all depends on medical conditions. Here are some guidelines I tell my folks:</p><p></p><p>If you have diabetes and are on meds for it, count on every 3 months. This is the standard of care and includes an A1c, lipids, CBC (blood count) and CMP (electrolytes, kidney and liver function). We do an A1c fingerstick in office, it is $44 or so. The other 3 are a grand total of $120 or so through our company. A VERY few diabetics I might see every 6 months if they are well-controlled and only on 1 or 2 meds. Pretty limited few, though.</p><p></p><p>If you are on multiple meds like for blood pressure and cholesterol, you're probably going to be on that same 3 month schedule. We have to keep an eye on kidney and liver function and cholesterol will be at least every 6 months if you have a history of it being elevated. With diabetics, it's every 3 months, elevated or not.</p><p></p><p>If you are on 1 BP med and 1 cholesterol med, we MIGHT say once a year. Maybe. If you're very well controlled with no other significant health issues.</p><p></p><p>Prostate - with men over 50, we check this annually. Screening for prostate cancer. This test is about $175 through our company.</p><p></p><p>Thyroid, if you're on meds, we usually check the TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) level once a year to see if we need to adjust your medication level, or more frequently as it may relate to symptoms.</p><p></p><p>And no, for those curious, we get ZERO dollars for ordering labs these days. From any insurance, any company, no kickbacks, no percentage of labs, we don't charge for lab draws, etc. The company that does the labs keeps an employee in our office, we give them space which we could be renting to someone else, but it is simply something we keep in-house as a convenience for our patients. It nets us nothing, but actually does increase our overhead, and again, we could be leasing that space - we have had a number of other offers.</p><p></p><p>So... if from what I am reading you have only BPH (benign prostatic hyperplasia), you have annual labs, it would include if you are on meds for it, in my office, probably CBC, CMP and PSA, which is a grand total of about $230, and if you have obesity or smoking or other risk factors, I'd want to do a lipid level for another $60. And once a year sounds about right.</p><p></p><p>I have people who don't even want to come be seen and checked up on once a year - but want their medicine refilled in spite. Sorry. You need my services (i.e., my medical license to prescribe your medicine), I need to see you and check your labs on a regular and appropriate schedule (somewhat as above) to make sure the meds I'm prescribing aren't screwing up your system, or something we aren't monitoring isn't killing you.</p><p></p><p>Because as soon as your lawyer finds out we weren't monitoring things to catch that problem you've come up with, I'll be getting served -count on it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="tRidiot, post: 3278176, member: 9374"] Sorry, [USER=9374]@tRidiot[/USER] been working this morning, taking blood and screwing innocent people, don't ya know? lol J/K. All depends on health conditions. I don't know why you have $500 worth of labwork, all depends on medical conditions. Here are some guidelines I tell my folks: If you have diabetes and are on meds for it, count on every 3 months. This is the standard of care and includes an A1c, lipids, CBC (blood count) and CMP (electrolytes, kidney and liver function). We do an A1c fingerstick in office, it is $44 or so. The other 3 are a grand total of $120 or so through our company. A VERY few diabetics I might see every 6 months if they are well-controlled and only on 1 or 2 meds. Pretty limited few, though. If you are on multiple meds like for blood pressure and cholesterol, you're probably going to be on that same 3 month schedule. We have to keep an eye on kidney and liver function and cholesterol will be at least every 6 months if you have a history of it being elevated. With diabetics, it's every 3 months, elevated or not. If you are on 1 BP med and 1 cholesterol med, we MIGHT say once a year. Maybe. If you're very well controlled with no other significant health issues. Prostate - with men over 50, we check this annually. Screening for prostate cancer. This test is about $175 through our company. Thyroid, if you're on meds, we usually check the TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) level once a year to see if we need to adjust your medication level, or more frequently as it may relate to symptoms. And no, for those curious, we get ZERO dollars for ordering labs these days. From any insurance, any company, no kickbacks, no percentage of labs, we don't charge for lab draws, etc. The company that does the labs keeps an employee in our office, we give them space which we could be renting to someone else, but it is simply something we keep in-house as a convenience for our patients. It nets us nothing, but actually does increase our overhead, and again, we could be leasing that space - we have had a number of other offers. So... if from what I am reading you have only BPH (benign prostatic hyperplasia), you have annual labs, it would include if you are on meds for it, in my office, probably CBC, CMP and PSA, which is a grand total of about $230, and if you have obesity or smoking or other risk factors, I'd want to do a lipid level for another $60. And once a year sounds about right. I have people who don't even want to come be seen and checked up on once a year - but want their medicine refilled in spite. Sorry. You need my services (i.e., my medical license to prescribe your medicine), I need to see you and check your labs on a regular and appropriate schedule (somewhat as above) to make sure the meds I'm prescribing aren't screwing up your system, or something we aren't monitoring isn't killing you. Because as soon as your lawyer finds out we weren't monitoring things to catch that problem you've come up with, I'll be getting served -count on it. [/QUOTE]
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Is it really necessary to have blood drawn every year?
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