Startups

I would spend HSA dollars to cut out the bloodwork middle man

Waiting for lab results was the second biggest patient gripe in a recent Consumer Reports […]

Waiting for lab results was the second biggest patient gripe in a recent Consumer Reports survey of patients.

Now there is a free solution to that hassle: WellnessFX is offering its direct-to-you blood test results for free. The company is celebrating its third birthday by launching the new eCheckup product. Instead of getting bloodwork done at a doctor’s office, you go straight to a lab. eCheckup measures more than 25 biomarkers including cholesterol, blood count, blood sugar levels, and thyroid function.

You get the results on the WellnessFX site usually within 48 hours. A WellnessFX doctor reviews the results also.

The free part is over at this point. If you are worried about any of the results, you can schedule a phone consultation with a doctor, nutritionist, or dietician in the WellnessFX network. The providers are organized by state and specialty.

WellnessFX is connected online to three major labs: Quest, LabCorp, HDL. CEO and founder Jim Kean said that client accounts are secure, HIPAA compliant health data repositories.

“We are integrated on the front end for ordering diagnostics and then once the client has had samples drawn at a lab partner site our backend integration with the lab management systems allow us to check their databases daily to pull WellnessFX client data out and into the client’s account,” he said.

Most of the company’s customers are individuals. Thirty percent of the customer base is small and medium businesses.
“We do have a few small pilots with large corporations and see this growing more in the future,” Kean said.

This kind of service is about as consumer-directed as you can get. It’s easy to imagine packaging this kind of service with PokitDok. That would provide an automatic next step for a person who wanted or needed an in-person doctor visit to discuss the results of the test, someone with metabolic syndrome, for example.

I first heard about WellnessFX at SxSW last year. My kids love the t-shirt I picked up from them. They laughed when I explained the combination of a skull, a stethoscope, and the “I’m on the highway to well” caption.

I was on the site a few weeks ago, thinking about signing up for a blood screening. I’m not an elite athlete – the target market – but I am a vegetarian and curious about my health.

WellnessFx uses LabCorp to do the blood work in my neck of the woods, and sure enough, there is a lab on one of my daily routes. It is a persuasive and (limited time) offer: One test for free or two for $25. The idea is that the information from the initial test will motivate me to change my eating and exercise habits, and curiosity will compel me to get a follow-up test to see if the changes are working. Maybe I will buy a standing desk too. If I time my blood tests right, I would have actual data on whether or not standing for part of the day makes any difference to my health.

Veronica Combs

Veronica is an independent journalist and communications strategist. For more than 10 years, she has covered health and healthcare with a focus on innovation and patient engagement. Most recently she managed strategic partnerships and communications for AIR Louisville, a digital health project focused on asthma. The team recruited 7 employer partners, enrolled 1,100 participants and collected more than 250,000 data points about rescue inhaler use. Veronica has worked for startups for almost 20 years doing everything from launching blogs, newsletters and patient communities to recruiting speakers, moderating panel conversations and developing new products. You can reach her on Twitter @vmcombs.

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