Aside from Quest Diagnostics, do you know of any national labs that I can use instead of lab corp? They’re horrible.
Thanks. Jasmine

There are many regional labs but after extensive research I discovered that due to the regulations imposed on labs under the CLIA federal law, and the proliferation of managed care, there are very few labs that can be considered “national” labs. The consolidation of the industry has lead to even more business for these two lab giants. Not surprisingly, when local laboratories expand past the regional phase, either LabCorp or Quest Diagnostics buys them.

 Depending on where you live, there are local and regional labs that offer great services and are likely to be accepted by your insurance. They usually do not have as many service centers as the two large ones and are more likely to work directly with your doctor’s office. An example is Bio-Reference Labs in New Jersey and New York, Florida Reference Labs in South Florida and other such smaller lab companies. There are also others where you can mail in your specimen and have direct access to results. One of the leaders is Direct Laboratory Services (DirectLabs). The problem with them is that while you are dealing with DirectLabs through the web but you are also dealing with LabCorp, as they will send you to LabCorp to give blood for the test. This is basically a wholesaler that has LabCorp doing all the work for them and they provide the results for you. They only accept credit card payments and do not accept insurance. While their prices are lower than going directly through LabCorp, you will experience all the frustrations of dealing with Laboratory Corporation of America locations.

LabOne was considered a formidable contender but got acquired by Quest Diagnostics. Almost on a weekly basis, you will notice national labs acquiring smaller regional ones. Another option is using a hospital based lab. The problem with hospital based alternatives is that they may charge more for the services. If you’ve had enough with the big national laboratories, check with your insurance company to see the regional labs that are part of their approved networks.

It reminds me of the old AVIS rent a car ads whose slogan was “We try harder.”

Feel free to post this complaint about Labcorp on your website:

My daughter had blood work done that was ordered by her doctor in the summer of 2009.  Early 2010, she has been referred to a specialist who wanted all of her previous records including blood test results.  I didn’t have any problem obtaining results from all other tests performed by the hospital.  The doctor that originally ordered the blood tests has retired and left a contact for medical records requests.  I didn’t have any success with the referred place so I contacted LabCorp directly and they told me that by law, they could not give me or my daughter the lab results.  They told me that only the doctor that ordered the tests could access the results.

I paid for these tests in full.  These are my records, not the doctors.  I walked right in the hospital and got all the other results with no problems.  The hospital told me that there is no law preventing a person from obtaining their own medical records.  I will never voluntarily use LabCorp again.  I recommend that if your doctor takes blood for tests, ask them what lab they use.  If they use LabCorp, ask them if there is another option.  If they write a prescription for tests, take prescription to your local hospital to get the lab work done.  Be sure to check to see if the hospital is on your insurance’s network.

Mike F from Amarillo, TX

If you’ve had blood tests and the results are available, you can request a copy of the results. All you have to do is ask for it. It’s your right to get copies of the blood test results from the doctor, LabCorp or medical facility who administered the blood test. The federal law that allows you to ask for and receive copies of your health records is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, also known as HIPAA. After you request copies of your blood test results, the law states that the medical facility has 30 days to give them to you. Labs may ask you to sign a permission form before releasing them but as I understand HIPAA, they have to provide it to you.

In Mike’s daughter’s case, LabCorp failed to provide the records and claimed that the law prohibited them from providing copies of the lab test results. If anyone knows what law they are referring to, please let us know by posting a comment to this post. I spoke to various lawyers about this issue and they all told me the same thing, “Your lab test results are medical records that belong to you under HIPAA.” There are laws that require medical consultation in reference to certain test results but in Mike’s daughter’s case, the results requested were old records that had already been provided to the doctor. A word of advise to Mike is that you contact the Medical Board in your state about the custodian of the records for your retired doctor. They will make sure that you get the records that the doctor turned over to them. You should also tell them about  LabCorp’s refusal to provide you the records. I’m sure that there is a state licensing agency that wants to know all about it.

 I went to Labcorp for routine medical tests today at 1217 East Ave, Sarasota.   When I arrived there were several elderly patients arguing with confrontational Labcorp employees that they had provided urine samples while the staff insisted that they had not. One elderly man stated that he witnessed his sample being stolen. 

When my turn came, my blood was drawn and I was handed a cup and a plastic lid that looked like a paper coffee cup. It had my name written on it with pen, no number.  I was told to go into a bathroom. The bathroom was filthy and there were numerous puddles and spots of urine on the floor, the counters, the sinks.

There were also several rings of urine left by previous cups on the counter. It was apparent that the urine was from numerous persons.   I was not given an alcohol wipe or instructed to wipe my hands. The woman scolded me for handing her the cup and told me to leave it on the dirty counter. I told her the bathroom was filthy and she said someone cleans it later. 

The employees there were morbidly obese, confrontational, rude, and appeared to have a limited intellect.   I am 50 years old and have utilized the health system in several states, Mexico, Central America and South America. I have never witnessed such a bizarre situation and unsanitary conditions in a health care facility.  This facility is below third world standards and I do not feel comfortable with the integrity of any results.   Mike

I went to LabCorp in Arlington VA last Saturday am in the middle of a snowstorm that was getting worse by the minute. All I had to do was drop off a specimen, and I informed them of that the minute I walked in. After two more interruptions by me asking why I couldn’t just drop it off, they finally took it from me – an hour after I walked in the door. So, I sat for an hour in a waiting room filled with sick people (and I am not sick), while 8 inches of snow was falling and the roads getting worse by the minute, and they couldn’t be bothered to take a plastic bag of test tubes from me. They weren’t even apologetic. I think I would have been there another hour if I hadn’t finally thrown a huge FIT at the desk.

I wrote an email complaining to them about this, but you know they won’t even respond to it. They are a terrible company.

Here’s an email that I recently received. It tells the complete story:

Couldn’t believe that there is a whole website devoted to Labcorp screw ups! On November 23rd, 2009, my husband and I both went to Labcorp with physicians work orders in hand. After waiting about an hour, we finally had our respective blood drawn. My husband’s was routine. I am a cancer patient and had two orders, one from my oncologist and the other from my primary care doctor. Even though the facility was very busy and it was a Monday (I should have known better), there was only one phlebotomist on hand. She stated that she was the only one drawing blood there for the past month.

We never heard from our doctor with the results, so on a visit this past weekend, we asked our doctor what the results were. She stated she never received them and proceeded to call Labcorp. She was told they had no record of us going into their facility in November. On a hunch, I called our provider, Humana, on Monday and was told Labcorp had billed them over $500 for my labwork on November 23rd and also had billed them for my husband’s. So, according to labcorp, we never went there on November 23rd, yet they billed Humana over $500!! Meanwhile, we had to have our blood re-drawn yesterday. This time we went to Quest Diagnostics. Maybe we’ll have better luck there. I have filed a complaint with Internal Affairs at Humana and hope to follow up with a letter to labcorp if I can find the proper person to send it to.

Carolyn

LabCorp in Orlando, Florida seems to be a big mess. It seems that Mickey Mouse can probably do a better job
with patients than LabCorp’s Orlando employees. Here’s an email I recently received from Debbi about her
husband, a former LabCorp patient.

We had a similar experience with Labcorp here in Orlando. The wait is ridiculously long. Their staff is short. They got my husband’s test wrong and he had to go back. They didn’t get the results faxed to the doctor. He had to be on the phone with them several times to get them to get the results to the doctor. When he went back a second time to re-do the test, the lady who was in charge was rude and hurried and did a horrendous job taking the blood. He said he’s never had that kind of experience with a blood test before. My husband who very seldom gets angry at people, was livid. Our endocrinologist had sent us there for some reason. We prefer Quest which is only a few buildings down from Labcorp. Quest makes appointments. The wait is reasonable. The staff is professional and they always have several staff working together at the same time.

We will tell our endocrinologist that we will not be going back to Labcorp.

Thank you, Debbi in Orlando

I recommended to Nancy that she contact United Health Care and notify them about the incident with her child. Hopefully that will persuade United Health Care to select better quality lab service providers. Here’s Nancy’s complaint:

I had to take my 11 year son to Labcorp yesterday in Deland Florida and we had a HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE. First the tech gave him something to squeeze, tied off one arm, poked and prodded with her finger, untied it, tied off the other arm and did the same. Took the tourniquet off and called in a co-worker to “hold his arm, he wasn’t co-operating.” I said to her, “He’s holding perfecting still, what do you mean he’s not cooperating?” She said “He’s not squeezing hard enough”. She then stuck him with the needle, nothing came into the vacutainer tube, she then proceeded to stick it in DEEPER and wiggle it around……I told her take it out, she had one shot, and by this time he was crying and I hadn’t seen him cry in years….She then says, “Well do you see how thick his arms are for a kid?” “Go take him to the hospital” and as she took the tourniquet and supplies away I saw that it was a glass blood tube that she was having him squeeze…he was afraid he’d break it……I still have to get his blood work done but I’m checking other labs for cost because my United Health care pays for Labcorp only and I’d rather pay out of pocket than go to Labcorp again. I was going to go to another site but after reading all the complaints online it seems they are all as equally unprofessional, rude and inadequately trained.

Here’s the email I sent her:

Nancy:

I posted your incident on the labcorpsucks.com website, and withheld your name. How sad that they would do that to a child. I highly recommend that you contact United Health Care and let them know of how your son was treated. They might even authorize you to go to another lab or have the blood drawn at a doctor’s office. Having unqualified or poorly trained personnel at a lab service center is the fault of management. I have noticed that there are many complaints about management in your region. Please feel free to refer United Health Care supervisors to see how many complaints are posted on labcorpsucks.com. Hopefully that will move them to stop using LabCorp and select a lab services provider that will provide higher quality health care services for their insured. I will also forward your incident to Florida’s AHCA (Agency for Health Care Administration). I highly recommend that you call Florida’s AHCA and file a complaint with them as well. Here’s the info on how to file a complaint in Florida:

Consumer Complaint, Publication and Information Call Center

The agency provides a toll-free telephone system for consumers to call in order to file complaints, receive publications, information and referral numbers. This system can be accessed by calling the number below between the hours of 8:00 A.M. and 6:00 P.M. Eastern Time Monday through Friday. Complaints about health care facilities are taken during regular business hours, 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M., Eastern Standard Time (EST).

(888) 419-3456

For registering your complaints, requesting publications or requesting information, use the following options:

Press Option 1

Available Monday – Friday, 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M., EST. To file a complaint about a health care facility. The call center can also refer you for information on facilities.

Good luck.

The doctor, for sending the patient to the LabCorp center in order to get a blood test. The insurance company, for going with the lowest bidder and allowing LabCorp into their network of providers. The patient, for allowing their doctor and insurance company to send them to LabCorp for blood tests. They are all at fault that Labcorp has deteriorated as a service provider. It’s their fault that the test results can’t be trusted. It’s their fault that centers close early and that employees treat the patients with such disrespect.

It’s not the fault of the mid-level manager that strives to make a quick buck so that the upper manager commends them. It’s not the Patient Services supervisor who has not idea of what “real” patient services means. It’s not the service center receptionist who treats patients as though they are doing them a favor by taking their blood. It’s not the laboratory personnel that quickly runs blood tests through the system so that they can meet their daily quota, disregarding the quality standards that insure the accuracy of the tests.

Employees who were sent here to defend the company, my recommendation to you is that you have all your fellow employees look in the mirror to see who is really at fault for bad health care. My recommendation to the doctors, insurance companies and patients that are causing all these problems. Stop sending, paying or going to LabCorp for tests. That should resolve all the problems.