Ameritox drug screening - Pain Management Message Board

arkia · 05-22-2008, 04:37 PM

Back in February I was switched to the care of a PM and as part of being a new patient had to give a UA....not a problem.

In March I received the bill from Ameritox.....a whopping $400...along with a form to fill out and attach my income tax to in order to receive either free or 50% discount. Today I received a letter stating I qualified for 50% discount. Still, $200 every time my doctor wishes to do a drug test?!?

The letter also stated that it is valid for 1 year for any tests that come to them and I will need to reapply in a year.

Holy smokes.....am I the only one with this high of a bill for a drug screen? The one I had at my previous doctor only cost me $50.

ms_west · 05-22-2008, 05:30 PM

Oh my goodness that is outrageous. My doc has never done one on me. I guess I would have assumed that it was covered under insurance.

Boxerluver · 05-22-2008, 06:16 PM

My new doc doesn't do them, but my old one did a blood and UA every appointment. The results were used in a study to see the medication varience month to month. But insurance always paid for it.

Melissa

momhurts · 05-22-2008, 06:43 PM

I was at my appt. yesterday and the ameritox rep was with the PA so I saw the Dr instead. Are they new? Or does this mean my doctors office is going to be using there services??

Executor · 05-22-2008, 07:45 PM

I am very disappointed to hear about this.....Seems like these folks are taking testing to the next level....And then some. As you all know, I'm a very big advocate of UAs....I've even stated that I would like a system where every patient was required to have a quick blood test @ each appointment in order to filter out those who are abusing and/or diverting. I think most abusers would eventually be identified and make life easier for those of us who are serious PM patients.

However, these folks take it way too far, IMO. I did some quick research on them, and it appears that the reason why the test is so expensive is because they have a very radical testing system. They market themselves as having the lowest threshold in the industry. Additionally, they measures compliance by comparing normalized values to established prescription-specific ranges. They use a patented algorithm to personalize lab results specifically to your a patients' demographics and prescription regimens. Results are specific to each patient, according to height, weight, gender, and age as well as prescription regimen.

Furthermore they market their services to physicians as a scare tactic....Saying that they help protect their practice from being closed by the DEA....Quoting what I think are outlandish %s:

- Up to 50% of all patients ignore directions on how to take their meds.
- Up to 21% never fill their scripts.
- 60% of patients can't identify their meds.

While I think there are patients who fit into all of these categories, I would challenge the high percentages. I don't believe for a second that over half of patients can't identify their meds. These percentages imply that a vast majority of patient are either dishonest or incredibly stupid. While abuse exists, I don't think it's anywhere near as rampant as they suggest. IMO, the media has made drugs like Oxycontin appear much more abusive than what really happens. I'm frustrated because it hurts the entire PM industry, and most notably those of us who suffer in pain every day.

In summary, I'm all for prescription monitoring and reasonable testing....But not this commando statistical analysis that force ranks every patient into an algorithm that some statistician has decided is "the norm." Patient's bodies are complex machines and I don't believe you can force rank patient results into a distribution curve. As a ex university professor, I understand how statistical analysis works and I also know how data can be misleading. Please, for god sakes, lets leave the doctoring to the physicians and not some third party who profits from some so called "advanced testing methodology."

Ex