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STD testing cost?
Dance Commander
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I got an STD test back in October because I'm 24, had never had one, and it seemed like the responsible thing to get it done occasionally. The doctor told me that my insurance, which is generally excellent, would cover it. I just got a bill for $460 for that procedure. I'm going to try and figure out why my insurance didn't cover it, but is this cost reasonable? My impression was that STD testing is relatively cheap since we want people to do it semi-frequently.
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Anyway, I went to Planned Parenthood the next time and paid my $20 co-pay and an extra $30 for an HIV test (shrug, can't be too careful) and that was all I've had to pay. I explained the previous situation and they said their tests didn't cost more than $150 total and they had forms if you're low income.
I've learned that if you donate blood they check for everything but chlamydia I think.
In either case, call the customer service number on the back of your insurance card and get it sorted immediately.
I guess in the future I'll just donate blood regularly and occasionally supplement that with tests at Planned Parenthood. Really good tips there, Castle, thanks
You will still want to get tested for STDs that don't often show symptoms. That's why I listed the big C, G and HIV.
Anyway, you're welcome, DC. Stay safe and keep fucking that chicken.
In the future, look up your local county / state health services. Usual cost for a full array of tests including HIV: $0.
They also frequently provide free antibiotics for common infections.
And they're almost always anonymous, an added bonus.
Not to mention that there are fun bugs like HPV that can happily get past the whole condom thing, or if you engage in any kind of oral contact, oral herpes can get to the genital area or genital herpes can get to the oral area, etc. (consider dental dams)
Better off not having a partner until you've both been tested for each other's benefit. Of course, this may conflict with your lifestyle choices. Fun, eh?
Do not do this as a cheap STD test.
I'm also fairly certain that they test in batches as a cost-saving measure. So, yes, they test your blood, but it's been mixed together with the blood of twenty other people or something. And if any of you had tainted blood, it all gets thrown out.
Despite condoms being able to block most STDS, they aren't perfect. Still they are better than nothing. Until you are ready to settle down and be with one parnter and he/she is willing to do the same and you both have a clean bill of health, I would still recommend condom use.
someone's being a little too credulous about the silly urban legends they're hearing..
So it's common to do ELISA for HIV first because it has high sensitivity (so very low risk of missing a positive) but low specificity (so relatively high risk of false positive), then follow up with western blot which is more specific to confirm if a positive is false or true, and usually they're false.
Plasma, on the other hand, is pooled for testing. However, they don't mix a giant batch of plasma and then test a sample of it, they pool a little bit from each donation and test that pool. Do you have any idea how much money they would lose if they pooled it prior to testing? It's also tested more individually if there are positive results, so they can throw away the bad stuff and use the rest.
But yeah, don't donate blood to get yourself tested. It's a terrible idea, and extremely unethical if you think there is any chance that you are actually infected with anything.
To be fair, the tests do cost quite a bit to administer. It's just that often there are public health options where most or all of the cost is covered by the government. He went through his private doctor instead of a public clinic, and as he explained later it turned out his deductible hadn't been met yet so it didn't cover any of it.