Where Do I Take My Orders To?
Patients can take their lab slip to any location within that lab family. For example if a patient is assigned to Quest they can take their lab slip to any Quest location--not just the one that they are assigned to on their portal. They cannot take a Quest lab slip to Labcorp or Memorial Hermann and vice versa as the test codes & descriptions are not always the same from lab to lab.
We cannot change the assigned lab for a lab order that has already been issued without a NEW visit since in order to switch labs each lab has to be individually cancelled and then reissued and authorized by the physician. This often can take 30 minutes or more as each order has to be cancelled and reissued individually and sometimes certain labs cannot simply cross over to another lab company so a substitute panel or order must be researched first. Per insurance regulations this type of service does fall under medical services (because they are medical orders and the amount of time involved to change the orders which can only be done by the physician) which is why we are only able to provide these types of changes at the visit when the labs are originally issued. We inform patients during their check in and in their financial policies that if they have a specific lab family that they want to be assigned to that they have to let us know before or at the time of visit. For example if a patient is assigned to Quest and then after visit calls and wants orders changed to Labcorp.
The ONLY way that we can change orders after the fact is if the lab is completely not in the patient’s network. Otherwise patient would have to go to the facility on the order. We are able to update the patient’s lab so that any future orders go to a different lab family (for example patient can update their lab so any future orders go to a different lab).
Our office sends lab orders via electronic interface to Labcorp or Quest. We do not FAX blood work orders, only imaging orders. If you cannot print a copy of your orders to bring with you to the lab for backup please call the lab 1-2 days prior to going to the lab to ensure that they are able to see your orders in their system. If you contact the lab and they cannot see your orders in their system then please contact our office and we can verify if your orders were successfully transmitted in the system (we get an electronic verification when the orders are transmitted to the lab). If we verify in our system that the lab orders were successfully transmitted but the lab still doesn't have your orders AND you can see your order in your patient portal then the error is on the side of the lab. In this instance we would recommend that you manually print out orders in your portal and bring the paper orders with you to the lab.