This is an email I recently received from a LabCorp employee. If you are familiar with workplace drug test laws and LabCorp drug testing policy, please post a comment with your recommendations. They are appreciated.

“I was recently told that I needed to take a drug test. The following is what happened.

I was called in to do a drug test and K–, my immediate supervisor, handed me a cup and told me to go into the bathroom. So I did. I wasn’t worried, because I hadn’t taken anything. During my Drug Test K– left out of the room leaving someone else there (that was not administering the test) and came back to complete my drug test. There were other drug test sitting on the table that were done before mine. Later, I found out I was suppose to seal the lab bag, but I didn’t, K– did, I guess after I left the room (not sure). I went back to my meeting. It just so happen that E– (the employee K– said she wanted to give my job to) was there on the day of my drug test and several other days, which she was suppose to be on medical leave of absence.

With K– and my history (we do not have a good one), I do not feel as if she was the right person to be giving me a drug test. I don’t know.

Almost three weeks after the drug test, K— told me that she needed a copy of my prescription medication Adderall, she said that Adderall showed up in my drug test. That extra test were run to determine it was Adderall. She also said that copy of the prescriptions was missing from my personnel file. I told her that Adderall could not have showed up in the drug test, because I have not taken any Adderall. I told her that I have been taking Phentermine and asked her if she wanted that prescription. She said “no”. I immediately requested another test. I was never contacted by a Medical Review Officer or “Loss Control” to determine about any medication that I was taking.

I told K– that I would get a copy of the prescription, since she said that would clear me. I went to my office and called Wal-Mart to get them to fax me over a copy. I was in the hall and — asked me again about the prescription in front of another employees (unprofessional behavior?). I told her that Wal-Mart pharmacy had just opened and they said it would take about 30 minutes to get the copy. I decided to go to Wal-Mart and get the list my self. I went to look for K– and she was out side smoking with T– and N–. I told her I needed to go to wal-mart for a minute to pick up something. She said that was fine. I went to Wal-Mart and got a copy of my prescription medication and placed them on Ka–’s desk.

She called me to her office and told me that the copy from the pharmacy would not work and said all I needed to do is to find the original bottle with the original date on it and bring it to her, and I could keep my job, otherwise I would be terminated, she would have to notify the board of nursing, and that I would lose the rest of my vacation and sick pay. She knew I was about to take a week off for Christmas.

The next week, I took the Phentermine bottle to her. She said, ” Is this the bottle.” I told her no, but this is the Phentermine bottle, which should have showed up. She said, “Keep trying to find the bottle.” A few hours later, I brought the original Adderall bottle to K–. She was at lunch, so I left the bottle with Ch–, and asked her to get K– to call me. Ch–, DON called me later and said K– said the bottle will not do because I should have brought the bottle right in and it did not have any medication in the bottle. I told her to tell K–, I did not take the medication. (I had the extra medication from the bottle, but I did not know I needed to give it to K–. They were taken out of the bottle before I took the bottle to K–.)

I have been getting phone calls that, K– has been telling people she fired me for failing a drug test, that I was taking my childrens’ Adderall (K– did not know that my children have not been on Adderal in over 4 months or that I do not take the medication due to a reaction it causes on me.), and that her and HR has already fixed one drug test for me (I thought it was against the law to fix a drug test??). Other employees have also seen my drug test results on the fax machine, she has been making phone calls to other management about me with employees in the office.

I believe they know I am a single parent and have to keep my job, so they could do what they want and I would not quit.

What is the drug testing chain-of-custody?

No one had ever asked me for a list of my medication or if I was taking anything. Was this appropriate for her to have mentioned my test results in front of someone else? HIPAA?

How do I find out if they are DOT regulated? How long does it take to for the results of a urine drug test ?

Why would Adderall be showing up instead of the Phentermine? Would something else be causing the Adderall to show up?

Please help me!! I do not know what to do!! My reputation as a nurse and my children is what really means the most to me. I worked hard all those years and all I care about is that everyone knows I am not the worker they made me out to be.

What can I do???? If anything???

LabCorp is the ones that ran the test!!”

I have received 3 similar emails from 3 different patients, and that’s just in the past 3 days. What does it mean? That Labcorp has a serious billing problem. I experienced a similar situation a few of months ago with LabCorp. It was a bill for services that were provided a few months before that. I am fortunate enough to have a great insurance policy. If I go to the preferred providers, and LabCorp is one of them, I only have to pay a small co-payment. I received a past due notice from LabCorp in what appeared to be a notice from a collection agency. After closer observation it was clear that it was not a collection agency but rather LCA collections, Laboratory Corporation of America Collections. The amount was small but still more than the required co-payment. I wondered why I would receive a past due notice without first getting the original bill? It’s LabCorp, that’s why.

Called their 1-800 billing department number to inquire on how they arrived at the amount they want me to pay. A very nice lady answered and confirmed the amount. I explained that based on my insurance, the amount is incorrect. She continued to explain that what I owe is the amount that the insurance company did not pay. It seemed that she was reading a script as she was unable to answer questions I had regarding the discrepancy between their charges and what the insurance company allows them to charge as a preferred provider. When the script could not be followed, she politely responded with “You need to call your insurance company about that.” I was not getting anywhere with her in regards to resolving this matter so I just stopped and asked “Can you please just tell me how you arrived at the $39? That seemed to stop her for a few seconds of silence. In the same kind voice as before she responded, “That’s what your insurance company told us to bill you.” It was clear she had no clue as to why it was $39 and not $10, and she was making up whatever was not in her script. With that I thanked her and hung up the phone.

Well…back to the email I received from RJ. Read it below.

I just got off the phone from my THIRD call to Lab Corp billing for incorrect billing to my insurance carriers, thereby them sending me the outstanding bill to pay.

EACH TIME I go get blood drawn, the attendant REQUIRES copies of the insurance cards. So I know that they always have the correct cards. EACH time, I receive an incorrect bill. I have even written to them in October with my last check I sent them, and asked to correct the error and issue me a refund. The note was ignored, and no check was returned to me. I have waited to talk to a billing person 20 minutes before I can talk to someone. Then they ” apologize “for human error. I asked how this can be corrected in the future. All I get is an apology.

Today when I called, the lady would not let me talk to a supervisor or give me a name to write to LabCorp. She basically said since she is taking care of my problems that I do not need to talk to anyone at a higher level. All she kept repeating is that it is human error. The waits for lab drawers are getting longer, and I expect an incorrect bill each time I go to get lab drawn. Can I assume therefore, that the lab results are not right either if there is this much inaccuracy every other place in Lab Corp? I am going to fax a copy of this letter to LabCorp, also to an “unknown” named supervisor to see if I can get someone at a higher level to correct these decifiencies.

I wonder if part of the training at LabCorp includes passing the blame to someone else or actually creating a distraction so that the real issues are skirted? Is it part of LabCorp Career training? I say this because I have read posts and emails from existing employees who defend the company and its actions. Here’s the most recent post by an employee:

I also know that this site was set up by a disgruntled former employee who is trying to start his own lab company, so take from that what you will.

These employee posts are aimed at questioning the credibility of this site. As I have posted before, I was simply a patient who had enough and made the mistake of calling the regional manager about the poor treatment and service. Instead of getting a solution or an “I am sorry”, I was insulted and belittled. I do not work for LabCorp or any other lab. I have never worked for them or any other lab. I have no interests in any lab nor do I have plans to open any labs. From this and other posts by current Labcorp employees, as well as the way I was treated by managers, this creation of doubt and passing the blame on non-existing boogie monsters seems to be the modus operandi of career employees in this company. How sad that instead of fixing the problems, employees are sent to this web site by company managers to create excuses and raise doubt about the real problems being raised by patients and honest employees. I guess that evading the problems is easier than fixing them.

I thought that United Health Care wore a white hat, but I guess I was wrong and that they only canceled the contract with LabCorp in the South Florida region. Unfortunately it does not look like they canceled their contracts in other parts of the USA. United Health Care will learn, but only after they continue to lose patients and HMO members. Here’s an email I received from another “former” Labcorp patient.

Hi,

I see that you have United Healhcare on your “good guys” list.   I’m not sure if you are aware, but as far as Verizon Business for United Healthcare (40,000+ employees) is concerned, Lab Corp is the only lab we are allowed to go to that is covered.  I am not sure if other companies that use United are allowed to use other labs, but we got a letter in March of ‘08 that they were dropping Quest in favor of LabCorp.

Here is a letter I sent to HR this morning:

I would like to go on record to state my displeasure with Verizon/United Healthcare using LabCorp as the new lab of choice for blood work.   LabCorp is a cheap, cut rate operation staffed by nothing but a mean, discourteous and unprofessional staff.   I have had to use LabCorp three times this year and each time has been an unpleasant experience.  LabCorp establishments are understaffed and both of the doctors that send me there complain that the results take over a week to get, as opposed to 24 hours with Quest Diagnostics.  They state that they often need to call LabCorp to request the results, while patients who use Quest will have a fax with the results delivered the next business day.

Any money that Verizon Business/United Healthcare is saving by switching from Quest to LabCorp is certainly not worth the anguish that it is putting employees and customers through by forcing them to go there instead of Quest.

Thanks for your site.  I Googled “labcorp sucks” and was pleased to find your site!

NAME WITHHELD

Lately I’ve been getting a lot of emails about abused patients. I’ll be posting some of the more interesting ones. This one sums up the treatment that one can expect from a LabCorp service center. My recommendation, go somewhere else. Boycott LabCorp and let your doctor know that your health is too important to be left to the lowest bidder.

Hello, 

    I am a 54 year old woman who had to get my cholesterol blood screening done today at LabCorp (which by the way is the only lab that my insurance covers).

 

The local office opens at 7:30 AM…i was first in line outside a locked door saying that this office opened at 7:30…two employees (female) ..opened the door and myself and at least 10 others entered a “small” waiting room…i put my name down on the sign in board and gave them my card…wellllll the “girl” at the front desk proceeded calling others before me….i said “excuse me but i signed in first…, the “worker” said “Dont you argue with me…..you didn’t sign it….i said i did..she said “Quit fighting with me”….i was shocked and humiliated…they had put another sign in sheet over the original one i had signed in on…when i showed them this they told me to go “sit down” …i then got called and of course i got the lab tech (very unprofessional) who jabbed my arm….couldn’t get the blood to start flowing then jabbed in deeper and wiggled it!!! I said “stop you are hurting me!!” she told me to “lay my arm down flat”……and then she snapped the band off….i now have a sore arm and a bruise….the first i have ever had….i HATE going to this place…when i got back to work…i called the office and asked for the name of the girl who had been so rude to me….she hung up on me…i called back..and the other girl said  that i had “jumped line” i said WHHHATTT??…I DO NOT “JUMP” LINE… I AM A 54 YEAR OLD PROFESSIONAL WOMAN AND BY THE WAY I WORK FOR AN INSURANCE COMPANY…I DO NOT JUMP LINE”….she finally and reluctantly gave me the name of their supervisor…which i intend to talk to… I find it very hard to believe that this place stays open…first of all they herd you outside like your standing in line for drugs or something…then the pure rudeness of  their employees astounds me…..they are dangerous….and I will NEVER  GO BACK….there is no excuse for the substandard care and the poor and malicious attitudes of their employees…..please let me know what i can do or who i can talk to ..i want to make sure the right person hears of my experience…..i do intend telling my health care provider and my doctor about this…..

 

Thanks,

NAME WITHHELD

This is a recent article about LabCorp and their practices. The United States Food and Drug Administration believes that LabCorp’s testing “…may harm the public health.” Shame on you LabCorp for putting money before patient’s health.

The US Food and Drug Administration is looking more closely at an ovarian cancer test from Laboratory Corporation of America after deciding that the existing data did not support the test’s commercial use.

 

The FDA Office of In Vitro Device Evaluation and Safety has asked Labcorp to discuss with the agency the utility of its OvaSure Yale test, after it learned that the performance characteristics of the test were based on research that is not representative of the intended pool of patients.

 

In a letter to Labcorp dated August 7, OIVD Director Steve Gutman wrote that the scientific community would not view the study as sufficient to establish performance characteristics for high-risk women who may have ovarian cancer.

 

“Based on our review of your promotional materials and the research,” Gutman wrote, “… we believe you are offering a high risk test that has not received adequate clinical validation, and may harm the public health.” Gutman told Labcorp that OIVD would like to talk to the company about offering the test, and any other strategies the company may have for validating the test.

I was out of town for a few days and a little behind on reading my emails. I’d like to share one with you that was sent to me on Tuesday (Aug. 5,2008). It is from a gentleman named James, and we’ll withhold his last name.

Two weeks ago I went to LabCorp facility in Glen Burnie, MD. After signing-in one of the window attendants told me that I had an outstanding Co-pay. I informed them that I had two insurance’s CIGNA (through my employer) and BS/BS (Federal Retired) and would they please call the billing office, receptionist informed me that they couldn’t do that and that I would have to resolve the problem.

 

When I returned home I called the LabCorp billing office and told them what happened. The billing office told me that their system didn’t allow for more then one insurance entry in their system. but that she would take care of billing the secondary insurance company and if I had any problems when I went back for my blood work to have the lab center call them.

 

This morning (Tuesday, Aug 5, 08) I went back for my blood work and again I was told that I still had an outstanding co-pay and once again I told them to call the billing office. The receptionist told me they couldn’t do that. I told the receptionist to give me a phone and that I would call them, which I did.

 

I talked to the billing office again and explained the problem. The billing clerk said she understood and put the receptionist on. The receptionist reluctantly took the phone wrote down something and left the area (with no feedback given to me). A short while later another lady sat down at the computer and did something, again NO feedback.

 

After all of this 5 additional people were taken ahead of me, so I went back to the receptionist and asked what was going on. She said that I was NEXT I sat down and another two people were taken. At this point I asked to see the office manager. She came out an I asked her what was the problem with me. She told me about the billing problem. I told her I understood but that NO one gave me any feedback and that seven people have now been taken, when I was told that I was next, before the last two people were taken.

 

I asked the manager were they punishing me for their incompetence. Once again NO response.

 

NOTE: I am also sending this to my insurance companies.

Doesn’t LabCorp get it? You can not treat people like this in the USA. There are too many other labs available for us to have to put up with this attitude from your employees. Thanks to competition I no longer go to a LabCorp center, and refuse to have a doctor draw my blood if they are sending it to LabCorp.

Message to LabCorp: You are NOT doing anyone a favor by taking their blood and analyzing it. YOU ARE GETTING PAID FOR DOING IT! 

I believe that LabCorp managers are to blame. They do not take patient treatment and care seriously. From my conversations with Robert Blanco, the incompetent manager for the Miami region, the managers look for ways to protect employee incompetence. Instead of taking complaints as constructive criticism that helps them turn the company into a better provider, they find ways to defend employee actions. That’s why James’ story is a very common occurrence at LabCorp. Sadly enough, managers perceive their role as producers of numbers for the company. Numbers as in dollars. Forget how patients are treated and if they will ever go back to LabCorp, its the quick buck that counts. 

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