We knew someday this would be coming and I would say obviously the tests are limited to those which a consumer can understand and are part of common blood work tests that are done every day. The article mentions that years ago Quest tried the same thing and it
fizzled. LabCorp is also the company who runs the tests for Twenty Three and Me, a Google company that does light weight genomic and ancestry testing for consumers.
How this will take off remains to be seen. Recently LabCorp made a fairly large acquisition of a company named Covance, a large molecular research and clinical trials company worldwide.
Labcorp To Acquire Covance for $6.1 Billion Cash and Stock
Labcorp Buys Covance’s High Complexity Genomic Laboratory In Seattle
If you want to read the company privacy statement, you can read it here and see how much “sharing” is going on. it will be interesting to see how this catches on and if they have more success than Quest did a few years ago. In addition, the company will be looking for a drug store to collaborate with and there’s no mention of what the costs will be but in time I’m sure those will be shown as well. More and more states are passing laws to allow consumers to get lab tests without a doctor’s prescription. The company of course is facing some big competition from Theranos, a new lab company that charges 50% of what Medicare charges for blood tests and only requires a tiny drop of blood. I’ve written about Theranos quite a bit here at the Quack and as they grow, this will get interesting to see what the consumer does.
“It’s A Basic Human Right for Individuals to Have Access-One Drop of Blood”Theranos CEO & Founder, Elizabeth Holmes TED Video
I don’t expect a big rush on this but there could be enough to put some money to the company bottom line. BD
NEW YORK
• Consumers will soon be able to bypass their doctors by going online to order cholesterol readings, thyroid tests and other bloodwork from the nation's biggest diagnostics company.Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings, which has about 20 locations in the St. Louis area, will let customers go online to pay for tests, visit a service center to get blood drawn, then view the results on the Web. The company has already been doing back-office lab work for a number of Internet firms that let people order up tests without a doctor.
LabCorp's direct-to-consumer business will initially be run online. The company is exploring a partnership with a drugstore chain as well — an idea that rival Quest Diagnostics Inc. tried and scrapped. The company didn't say precisely which tests it will offer or how much it will charge. In some states, the law will still require consumers to get a doctor to order tests.
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