Blood Money 2010: Healthcare in America - Progressive Democrats of ...

Ask patients who need lab work done how that all works out today in America, and then imagine where this trend is going in the future. It’s blood money paid up front and in full or patients must take their chances. Getting laboratory tests or other medical testing done has become a special challenge for most of us, and forcing us to buy the defective financial product marketed as health insurance coverage is not going to change that. It’s going to get worse.    Patients who needed lab work used to routinely have blood drawn in doctor’s offices or in laboratories shared by several doctors within one practice group. Unless you needed to be fasting or had other special instructions leading into the test, what your doctor ordered was usually done on the spot. Getting results was a matter of waiting a day or two–and sometimes having a bit of worry–before the doctor would call and discuss your test results. Little did most of us know that was a bit of utopia. This morning I appeared at a Quest Diagnostics center here in Maryland where my doctor sent me to have blood work drawn. Dutiful patient that I am, I had even gone on-line and registered, set an appointment and printed out my instructions before fasting in preparation. After driving in icy and snowy conditions to the Quest office nearest my home, I was told that the lab no longer accepted my particular Blue Cross insurance plan. Embarrassed and frustrated, I retreated to the waiting room. At the LabCorp office, there was one person working the entire facility this morning. She moved between drawing patients’ blood and collecting their billing and insurance information. When she looked at my orders, she first said she normally doesn’t accept doctor’s orders written on Quest forms. I apologized and tried to explain. She cut me off and said she needed my insurance card and picture I.D., which I handed over. I also noticed LabCorp posted a sign saying...

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