There is no draw fee charged thank goodness!

And thank goodness there is no draw fee added to the Quest Diagnostics laboratory invoice that I just received from my first visit of March 16, 2010. That was a 2-hour morning at their facility on San Jose Blvd. in Jacksonville, Florida. That was the day hubby was waiting patiently for me and finally came to the blood drawing area to find me. He said I was back there for 40 minutes!

On that faithful day, it was one phlebotomist, 2 needle draw locations, and 5 tubes of blood [pediatric] along with one urine sample.

I know, in the back of my head, I was wondering how much is this going to cost me? You know laboratory charges can vary from one location to another as can insurance coverages. So, to benefit my curious readers, I am attaching a copy of the charges for those various tests. Analytically speaking, it was over $100 per pediatric tube of blood drawn!

Here's a breakdown:

• Cholesterol $31.75
• Lipotrotein, direct, HDL $42.25
• Triglycerides $31.75
• TSH $100.00
• Draw Fee, PSC Spec $0.00 [oh yeah!!! Could you imagine??]
• CBC, PLT, Diff $33.00
• Creatinine $42.31
• Microalbumin (QN) $14.34
• CRP, High Sensitivity $70.00
• Comprehensive Metabolic Panel $49.50
• 25-OH Vitamin D-3 $215.00

GRAND TOTAL: 629.90
The insurance discount was $553.37 leaving my payment due of $76.53.

I have yet to receive the second lab bill for the VAP test! Wonder how much that one will be? I'm thinking it will be more than $200 as I do know I should be paying $30.00 for that test.

Oh, could you imagine that there would someday be a draw fee??? How would they calculate that? Number of times stabbed; needles/supplies wasted er used? Number of phlebotomists involved in drawing that blood? Length of time it took to draw that blood?

For example, I'm thinking of the Mercedes-Benz dealership which assigns time factors to each type of job. Although your auto might be in service for 2 hours; if you have 5 different factors figures in for 5 different jobs, the time factor billed CAN be more than the actual 2 hours. Isn't that weird?

In my circumstances of having blood drawn, I could be in for an additional shocker IF and WHEN they start charging a "draw fee." Oh my!

P.S. Wouldn't it be more pleasurable to be bitten by a vampire, preferably a good-looking, in-demand vampire? Or one of Eastern European origination?  Thanks for visiting the Twilight Zone this afternoon.