posted
NOTE: This are only my views. They are not to be miscontrued or misused as medical or legal advice.
IGenex is a CLIA approved and state licensed laboratory. Unlike some of the large commercial laboratories, IGenex and MDL specialize in Lyme disease laboratory testing.
The test that is offered by large commercial laboratories is often not as extensive as Igenex, MDL or some of the other small specialty laboratories. Additionally, it concerns me that although large commercial infectious disease testing laboratories are often in-network participating providers, they may not be as nimble as smaller, out-of-network specialty companies.
In-network status, short turn around times, and the convenience and decreased costs associated with multiple locations make large commercial laboratories a given for basic monitoring tests. Unfortunately, these conveniences may cause commercial laboratory processes to be more convoluted and require these laboratories to go through more steps (like ensuring insurance reimbursement). These variables may lengthen the amount of time that it takes for commercial in-network infectious disease testing to reflect the latest scientific advances and/or pathogen mutations.
Also,a growing number of large commercial laboratory's Lyme tests are now based on commercially available test kits. There are now instances where medical test kit components, production and/or test kit assembly is being outsourced to Taiwan, China, and India. The test kits then are shipped to commercial labs here in the US.
The increased time spent in shipping channels appear to be a causal factor in higher rates of product tampering and adulteration. These variables may cause decrease the reliability of test results in these outsourced commercial laboratory tests.
It would be good to know where Igenex, MDL and other small specialty labs test kit materials come from, and where these labs produce and assemble their test kits. I suspect that a comparison would reveal that more of the process takes place in-house under more direct circumstances and the day to day oversight of state and federal authorities.
I worry that health insurer's drive to streamline in-network providers and ongoing under-reimbursement of local, American owned small specialty laboratories (small, local owned businesses) may ultimately cause our country to loose our lead in medical innovation, and cause the loss of high paying biotech jobs to foreign outsourcing.
Posts: 183 | From US | Registered: Feb 2004
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