I received this complaint that was also submitted to Labcorp through the patient feedback section of their web site. Complaints like this one should be immediately followed up by LabCorp managers. Whether they are followed up or not, now that’s a different story. LabCorp’s regional managers tend to find secondary excuses for the complaints. In other words, they find ways to blame the patient instead of the LabCorp employees who are poorly trained or worst yet, poorly supervised. That seems to be the universal problem in almost all LabCorp regions.

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 United States Food and Drug Administration issued a letter to LabCorp warning them that they are in violation of the law. LabCorp doing illegal things brings up their checkered past, when they were charged with fraud in the LabScam investigation.

The FDA warning letter and possible criminal and civil action against LabCorp could be the beginning of the end for Laboratory Corporation of America. I say this because as one government agency moves against them, there are possibly other government agencies that might step up to further investigate other allegations against the company. It’s about time that this regulatory oversight process start. For too long LabCorp has focused on the buck as opposed to the law and the required quality standards. In my own opinion, it is a company that is out of control.

Here’s the FDA story:

WASHINGTON, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Laboratory Corp of America (LH.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is violating the law by selling an ovarian cancer screening test without regulatory approval, U.S. health officials said on Wednesday.

The OvaSure test does not fall in a category that can be sold without prior clearance from the agency, the Food and Drug Administration said.

“Because you do not have marketing clearance or approval from the FDA, marketing OvaSure is in violation of the law,” the agency said in a letter dated Sept. 29.

The agency told the company to “take prompt action to correct these violations.”

LabCorp spokesman Eric Lindblom said the company was “disappointed” by the letter.

“We are currently in discussions with the FDA over the next steps and of course we share the FDA’s determination to assure patients are protected,” he said.

The company started selling the blood test in June, saying it could detect early-stage ovarian cancer in high-risk women.

The FDA letter was posted on the FDA website. You can read the full letter by clicking here.

LabCorp shares (NYSE: LH) fell nearly 1.8 percent today to close at $60.63 on the New York Stock Exchange.

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

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.

This section is for doctors and physician assistants that have had issues with LabCorp. Everyone wants to know what happened.