Taking Back

Erena DiGonis, a licensed clinical social worker and health coach with a consulting business in New York City and Long Island, decided to order her own bloodwork online when the specialists she saw wouldn’t run certain tests that she wanted done for a thyroid condition.

“It makes you feel like you’re taking back your own health by knowing where things stand,” she said of the testing she ordered online via DirectLabs. “It really empowered me and empowered my clients that I recommended this service to. If you wanted to get your cholesterol tested an extra time each year to see if your diet is working, it’s nice to see concrete results.”

Many of the tests don’t come cheap. WellnessFX, based in San Francisco, charges $988 for its most comprehensive package, which includes biomarkers for omega-3 fatty acids and fibrinogen, a protein produced by the liver. Customers can go to a Quest Diagnostics center to do their bloodwork, and they can add a 40-minute consultation with a physician to discuss the results.

New Revenue

DirectLabs, based in Mandeville, Louisiana, offers more routine tests like a $29 metabolic panel -- glucose, kidney, fluids, electrolytes, calcium and liver -- and a $49 measure of Prostate Specific Antigen, which the company says can be used to detect cancer.

Lab operators like LabCorp and Quest Diagnostics are looking for new sources of revenue as they contend with lower reimbursement from insurers and Medicare. The recent movement by hospital companies to buy up physician-owned medical practices has also siphoned off some of the lab work that the major providers had traditionally done.

LabCorp shares have gained 23 percent in the past year, lifted by a November agreement to buy drug-research firm Covance Inc. for $6.1 billion to expand beyond testing.

Quest Diagnostics’ 2002 attempt to start a consumer business, offering bloodwork through CVS stores in Florida and Ohio, fizzled by 2006. Quest didn’t respond to requests for comment.

More Educated

If LabCorp succeeds now, it’s because people are more knowledgeable and interested in their health data than they were then, said William Quirk, an analyst at Piper Jaffray Cos.

“There’s no question that consumers are more educated now than they were five, 10, 15 years ago -- that’s thanks to the Internet and smartphones and apps and such.” Quirk said.

The question is what tests consumers really want, and if they’re motivated to seek data without prompting from a doctor, Quirk said.

“This isn’t like what color iPhone do you want,” he said. “There’s a reason you get a prescription for lab work done, because a physician is seeking information to make a diagnosis.”

Running a consumer business will mean LabCorp must navigate the variety of state laws and regulations on online diagnostics -- some favorable, some challenging. Arizona, for example, passed a law this month that will allow residents to get blood tests without a doctor’s order. More than 20 states allow patients to order blood work without a prescription, Quirk said.