Let’s face its 2016, you don’t need to drive to a local video store to rent a movie, you can sit on your couch and order one. You can pull out your cell phone and order an UBER within minutes anywhere you want. If you want to buy retail products, you can do so online from Amazon and have it delivered to you the very next day—this type of demand service is what we are now accustomed to. We can go on and on with companies who have identified problems in the market place who has found better quicker solutions for the consumer. But what about healthcare, and how has healthcare adapted to our current expectations, and how is healthcare system as a whole been identifying ways to help patient’s rid disease? Identifying patient’s frustrations and finding solutions has been improving, yet not at the same pace to modern times.
There were over 52,000 applicants who applied for med school in 2015, up over 6% from the prior year, According to the Association of American Medical Colleges. The average time to be a practicing MD independently, after residency, is typically another 4 years. If you’re one of those who got accepted in Med school in 2016, chances are by the year 2024 Healthcare technology will be more innovative and technologically advanced. The question is how do we measure success rates for innovative technology in the world of healthcare, is it less heart attacks, less cancer, less diabetes, less obesity, or better disease management? We believe the focus will continue to be better disease management and life saving devices to aid a heart attack and stroke victims, respiratory difficulties, and other lifesaving technologies for acute trauma.
The reality is people are living longer, but living with a chronic disease. Rather than dying from your disease, you can just live with it. pharmaceutical technology has scientifically created the ability to keep you living as long as possible, but with other potential side effects—you could need other pharmaceutical drugs to manage your symptoms from side effects.
Example let’s talk about the number #1 type of drug in the market known to lower cholesterol and prescribed by your doctor. According to the CDC if you previously had a heart attack or stroke, a Statin drug is given to you if your LDL cholesterol (Bad Cholesterol) level is 190 mg/dL or higher. You are 40–75 years old with diabetes and LDL cholesterol of 70 mg/dL or higher. You are 40–75 years old with a high risk for developing heart disease or stroke and LDL cholesterol of 70 mg/dL or higher. These cholesterol lowering drugs are known as statins do come with potentially harming side effects side effects to your health.
Although we see many of these technological advancements as necessary tools to aid physicians not only to practice medicine but to manage chronic disease, at the end of the day YOU are the ultimate decision maker as to how you want to live your life. Are your comfortable popping drugs every day, or do you want to take charge of your life be 100% committed to your healthcare and avoid the possibility of being a pill popper. You have the choice to either empower yourself and become more involved with your healthcare by making healthy choices, or you can put yourself at risk of falling prey to potential disease. Think of disease as a robber, a home invader. If you leave the door unlocked, you are opening up the possibility of a criminal entering your home. Likewise, with disease, if you do the very best by maintaining a healthy proactive life style it makes disease very difficult to invade your body. We believe that most diseases start by lacking self-awareness, and education. Sometimes education isn’t that easy to access, so we’re here to provide you some knowledge as to how one may start.
We think that providing patients with as many resources as possible can be the best advancement in healthcare and it starts with “you” and your physician. Both of you need to have a vested interested in your health. The average time a patient spends with their doctor is less than 15 minutes and patients are rushed out the door. What makes matters worse, patients are not offered the correct medical laboratory tests because health insurance companies are reluctant to cover claims. Even though 70-80% of all clinical decisions stem from lab testing, and disease strikes before a symptom appears. One of the only times your health insurance company will cover your lab tests are when you’re symptomatic, or during your annual physical with a limited number of labs.
We believe that the core fundamentals of our healthcare system is dependent on lab testing. Physicians absolutely cannot make a guaranteed diagnosis without the aid of a lab test result, in addition to keeping up to date with new and proven scientific research. Take your normal lipid panel that calculates your total cholesterol, LDL, HDL and Triglycerides. This basic test was invented over 40 years ago and is the gold standard for detecting cardiovascular disease. Even though statistic show that 50% of patients who end up in the ER for heart attacks had normal cholesterol results, yet there are more advanced cholesterol tests like Cardio IQ Advanced Lipid Profile Test that measures your Cholesterol particle size, however this test is not ordered by physicians and insurance doesn’t normally cover it. Even though this test has much more clinical utility than the standard lipid test and helps aid the practitioner in the right direction, it’s not ordered as often as it should.
How about physicians not ordering thyroid panels for their patients where medical scientific research has proven that abnormal thyroid results could be the reason of very high cholesterol. The reality is when your doctor orders you the wrong tests, or tests they think you don’t need, they may be putting you at risk. Perhaps you really didn’t need that statin drug after all, maybe it was just your thyroid that need to be worked on.
Institutionally physicians do not have a very good platform to match lab tests to symptoms, and lab testing isn’t taught heavily in Med School, also insurance companies have so much weight on access and cost, and big Pharma has major influence as well too. How do you get out of this muck. The answer is simple, READ! Use the internet to your advantage, 70% of google searches have to do with healthcare related topics, ask your doctor why the ordered those tests and have them explain in detail how they are determining diagnosis and prognosis—at the end of the day it’s your body, not theirs!
The power is in your hands, leverage all the creditable resources out there to your advantage, if insurance and your doctor are denying you lab tests you think you need, seek all other alternatives, never take “NO” for a final answer, it can mean the difference between life or death.
Although the intention for the last hundred years has been to rid disease completely, this is just not the reality. As doctors have the advanced tools at their disposal, so do you. You can now order your own lab tests any day, any time, 24 hours a day, 7 days per week from your PC, or your cell phone, passing all the hurdles it takes to living a proactive lifestyle, and bypassing your insurance company denying you lab test claims. NCL has contracted with major diagnostic laboratories nationally allowing you access to over 8,000 lab tests from 50-90% off, on demand, on your terms! Your physician already knows this and needs to communicate this to you. Most people don’t know you can order a lab test online. Communication with your doctor is key to better health, and ordering your own lab tests can be a tool for your doctor if insurance is out of the picture.
New Century Labs has also contracted with physicians throughout the United States offering a unique platform for physicians to order blood work for their patients who either have no insurance, a high deductible, and when health insurance does not cover. We have found that at least a third of the patient need to pay cash for their lab tests and offering such services at extremely discounted prices has been seen as a useful tool for doctor and patient relationships. We have received calls from both physicians and patients who have expressed how much easier it is to be treated for health issues when access is available and pricing is low.
When you want a lab test, you won’t need to call your doctor’s office and make an appointment, which could take weeks, wait in the waiting room with other sick patients, pay your co pay and doctors fee. You can have full control to order lab tests and become more proactive, taking charge of your health. This should be one of the answers to solving our healthcare crisis and identifying solutions to get patients more in control of their health. Allowing you the freedom and access to critical information about your body is critical so that communication with your doctor can become more meaningful. At the end of the day your doctor has the final say as to the right diagnosis, medication and prognosis by using lab test results as an aiding tool, so isn’t it better to have the necessary tools at your disposal? NCL does several thousand lab tests per month from individuals who want answers about their body and we believe that proactive healthcare starts at the core fundamentals of diagnostic testing.
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