In a world where we are learning way more about health problems than ever before and we have more tests than ever before labs are even more important than we thought could be possible. Blood tests can help you find most of the illnesses that people have to deal with and help people to manage their health in a reactive and proactive way so that they can know what is wrong and fix it while there is still time to prevent further damage and fix the problem entirely.

But still not all labs are created equal and some places just can’t do the same extensive testing that others can. Laboratory services vary a lot depending on the company that you are getting them through and if you have an order for the labs from a doctor.

Traditionally labs have to be ordered from a doctor that thinks there may be something wrong and thus wants to check for that. Until recently it was completely impossible to just go and get lab work done without a doctor having a reason for wanting the labs to be done on you.

The other thing is that results traditionally only go to the doctor and not the patient that needs them done and that is because a doctor is who needs to interpret the labs to know what is going on in the body and what it means for you as all results are completely personal and can mean different things for different people. But that is not always the case now as healthcare has been changing and with that so has the laboratory services that you can get.

With more people taking their healthcare into their own hands and not going to a doctor very often because of the cost but still wanting to take care of themselves there are now labs that can do them on request from a patient. However, there is a catch to the service which is that you can’t expect the insurance to pay for the labs because there is no one to say what reason you need them and the cost can add up quite a bit. But it does give control to the patient to be very thorough and make sure that they are getting whatever they think they need.

Some patients have been able to find problems that their doctor was not even looking for this way and thus was able to help the situation that they had and the health problems they were experiencing. On the other hand, the majority of people only need what the doctor wants and just find out that they were worried about nothing and can at times be wasting the money that they spent.

As for finding a lab if you are going through your doctor, the first thing is you want them to write out the script for lab office that will accept your insurance as that is very important to get so that you don’t have to pay for the labs out of pocket. If you don’t have insurance then you just need to find the best lab in the area that is affordable.

Thankfully there is usually a cash price that is much lower than the cost of it through the insurance helping those that have no help with the cost of the labs. To find the best lab ask your doctor about the best lab in the area and tell them what you are concerned about so they know where to advise you.