Most Frequently Asked Questions

Instead of you first being required to go to a doctor (which will cost you money up-front for that office visit), self-ordering your blood tests on our website will enable you to "skip" that step!

Instead, you'll visit  directly with a Quest Diagnostics laboratory's “blood draw center”. This is the largest accredited blood testing lab in the entire USA.  Your own physician very likely uses Quest when "they" order blood tests for you.  You simply pay 50-91% less for your blood tests when you "self-order" them through our Health-Tests-Direct “Direct-Access-Testing” service!

To locate a blood draw center is simple.  Using your home or workplace Zip Code, you can search our database of 2,100+ blood draw centers nationwide to locate one that is either "in" or at least very nearby your home or workplace Zip Code.

We save you money on your blood draw, too!  Quest charge "us" $12.50 for your blood draw.  However, we only charge "you" $8.50.  And $8.50 is your maximum charge even if you are having your blood samples drawn for a "dozen" different  blood tests you are ordering today!

The Quest blood draw center will draw your blood when you present them with a written blood test order, or “Requisition Form” that you print that out directly from our website.  It is signed off on by OUR staff physician "online", so your own physician’s signature is NOT needed.  We do NOT charge you extra for this. When we get your test results, we send them directly and confidentially to you, NOT to your doctor or to anyone else.  However, YOU can print them out and hand-carry or email them to your doctor if you wish.  If any of your test results indicate "Outside of Normal Range", we strongly recommend that you do just that!

In summary: At NO extra charge, OUR physician (not yours) approves your blood test without first requiring you to visit a doctor’s office and pay extra for an exam. The M.D.'s "sign-off" happens "automatically"- i.e., electronically online.  The blood tests the labs can offer you online through our website are all pre-approved for "self-ordering" . Your lab requisition will, though, have the name of the M.D. licensed in  your state to approve your order in this "online" manner. We then earn lower prices for you at the labs by sending them a much larger volume of business (i.e., from all over the country) than any one doctor can ever possibly send to them.

It is our nationwide volume and other cost-saving factors we employ that enable us at Health-Tests-Direct to arrange the same high caliber of accredited laboratory blood test services for you as a doctor does. And overall, we accomplish this for 50-91% LESS cost to you than you traditionally would pay when going through your own doctor to get a prescription for a blood test that he/she might not even agree to "write" for you!  On our website, you have more than 200 tests you can order without that hassle. That’s the beauty of “Direct-Access-Testing”!  Do you have more questions? Then, please continue reading the rest of this “FAQ” page.

It’s as simple as “ONE-TWO-THREE”!  Explained in detail on our Home Page.

“1-2-3″ THAT’S IT!  Usually in 48-72 hours AFTER your blood draw, by using your unique User Name and Password, you will be able to privately view your test results right here online and even print them out!

IMPORTANT FOOTNOTES, THOUGH:

• You MUST take our “Lab Authorization” paperwork (Lab Requisition that you printed out) WITH YOU to the location you selected for your blood draw. If you show up WITHOUT your Authorization paperwork, they will NOT draw your blood and send it to the lab.
   
• You will NOT be asked to pay anything additional at the blood draw location. You have already paid in full online for your blood draw and lab tests you ordered. (It states that on your requisition.) If they do ask for any sort of payment, politely decline, and ask them to please call HTD (Health Tests Direct) at 1-800-456-4647 ext. 203. We will confirm with them that your full payment has already been made!
   
• Be sure to remember the unique Username and Password you registered with HTD, too.  You will need to use them again in 2-3 days to confidentially access (and print out if you want) your laboratory test results online from “Your Personal Wellness Folder”, right here on the HTD site.
   
• All of your laboratory test results for this “first” blood test order and all lab results for any “future” blood tests you order through our HTD™ website can – if you wish - remain here for your future 24/7 confidential access and print-out (e.g., to share with your doctor or whomever), using your unique User Name and Password. We will maintain your records confidentially for you (and without any additional cost to you) until YOU decide to delete your Personal Wellness Folder from our web site.

Self-ordering" blood tests online (i.e., "Direct -Access-Testing") is necessarily limited by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) to a very small percentage of all "available" laboratory blood tests for a very good reason- to protect you!  Yes, you WILL need your own physician's "written prescription" to get the "thousands of other type tests the labs can do.  But, you will NOT need his/her permission to self-order ANY of the FDA pre-approved selection of blood tests that you see listed on our website.

Click on the blue-colored "Blood Draw Locator" button on the home page or at the bottom of this page and enter your home or workplace Zip Code.

The lab we contract with - Quest Diagnostics - has more than 2,100 locations nationwide where you can have your blood drawn.  Therefore, more than 8 out of 10 of our customers will have to travel only “0.5 miles to “10" miles to the nearest location for their blood draw. Please accept our apologies if you are one of the two out of ten who lives or works further away than that!

Sorry, but “No”. And why not? Because dealing with insurance companies and their related “red-tape” paperwork just takes too much administrative time. Administrative time always translates to additional costs of doing business. Those added costs to us could only be offset by making our prices higher to you, so we avoid them for your sake. Furthermore, it typically takes 45-60 days and sometimes “120″ days to receive payment from insurance companies! To keep our prices 50-91 % lower than traditional costs for blood tests, it’s absolutely necessary that we totally avoid those traditional extra costs that are a necessary evil when doing business with insurance companies.  That's why you pay us in advance by credit card

Absolutely not. The 2,000+ Quest Diagnostics blood draw centers we contract with are all a part of a national network that is certified, regulated, and regularly monitored by both Federal and their own state health departments for compliance to medical standards.  They are owned and operated by Quest Diagnostics Labs, that analyzes your blood specimen. The same blood draw centers used by many thousands of physicians nationwide.

Quest Diagnostics is a CLIA (a Federal certification) certified lab and is the largest, most well-known and respected in the country. It is not at all unlikely that the national lab ”we” use are the same national labs that your own personal physician and other physicians in your local community have also used for years!

There are a dozen reasons that through Direct-Access-Testing (DAT), HTD is able to save you 50-91%. Here are five of them.

First, we save you the cost of going to a doctor for “an exam”. OUR "online" staff physician signs on your blood test order (you print it out from from your computer as an email attachment). you are NOT required to visit him or her first and pay for an exam.

Second, we save you the normally higher cost of the blood draw done by the clinic. (Our arrangement with all 2,100+ locations we use nationwide is to get HTD customers blood drawn for only $8.50. That’s as much as 80% LESS than the sometimes $22 they charge). Third: ”volume”. The laboratory give us a lower ‘test price’ than they give to your doctor, because your doctor sends blood test business to the lab from only perhaps 1-3 offices he/she might operate in your city. On the other hand, “we” operate nationally. We send blood test business to the lab from 2,100+ blood draw centers located all over the United States!

Third: ”Mark-up”. When your doctor gets your blood draw bill from the clinic they sent you to and your blood analysis bill from the lab your blood specimen went to, they “mark them up” much more than we do before sending you their “doctor bill”. Although we accept less profit-margin than your doctor is willing to do, our higher volume still allows us to run a profitable business… while still saving YOU up to 91% on your healthcare needs!

Fourth: Unlike most doctors’ offices, we do NOT accept insurance. That saves us a considerable amount in administrative expense (and cash flow losses due to those who “slow pay” or do not pay at all) that a doctor’s office experiences. Your doctor, certainly, must pass these expenses along in their bill to you. “We” don’t have those extra expenses and therefore do not need to pass them on to you!

Fifth: We require payment in advance by credit card or by personal check (if that check already has cleared the bank) before we arrange your blood test. That represents another considerable savings to us – and to you – because we don’t have to constantly deal with late payments, partial payment, or no payments, or with "bouncing" checks like most other businesses experience with their customers.  Make sense?

Sorry, but "No". If your blood sample is not collected by a Quest Diagnostics draw center, your blood sample will not be accepted by the lab.

Our Direct-Access-Testing arrangements are only with Quest Diagnostics and their blood draw facilities. 

Sorry, but no. Quest blood draw centers only must be used.

It saves us costly “G&A”- i.e., “general and administrative” expenses…and THAT helps us keep YOUR costs lower! Among other things, we don’t have to generate an invoice for you, fold it, stuff it in envelope, stamp it, mail it, and wait 30, 60, or 90 days for "some" of customers to finally write a check and send it to us. (Plus, we don’t have to go through the time and expense of “hounding” those who mail only partial payment, or, don’t ever mail it.)

We also don’t have to charge higher prices for your blood tests to offset the cost of the ‘bounced’ checks that, unfortunately, are too frequently written by some people. Simply charging your credit card online – in advance – or, by waiting until after your personal check sent to us clears at the bank before arranging your blood test, WE save time and money that enables us to save YOU time and money, too!

HTD is a personal health management service of OHS Health & Safety Services, Inc. (www.OHSinc.com).  We are family-owned and have been in business since 1991.  We are an "A+" rated business by the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and have been every year since 1991, as well!   OHS, Inc. specializes in providing employee drug testing and workplace safety services and serves more than a thousand large and small companies in all 50 states and even a few in Canada. Readily available for you to view on multiple pages of our two websites are our complete “brick and mortar” address, a map with directions to our offices, plus our full phone, fax, and other contact information. In fact, you can view all of that at the bottom of every page of this website, including this page.  Unlike far too many "online" businesses that do NOT "fully" list their contact information, you will always KNOW exactly where to find us!

Health Tests Direct has been offering discounted blood testing online and nationwide through “Direct-Access-Testing” since February 12, 2001. OHS, Inc. and Health-Tests-Direct are both headquartered in Costa Mesa, California in a real building and we have real offices for you to come by and visit real people. We do not “hide” behind a P.O. Box number – or hide without ANY address information at all- like 43% of other Internet-based businesses!  Again: If you EVER are disappointed with us or with our services for ANY reason whatsoever, you will KNOW exactly where to find us!

Additionally, and very importantly, all of your “on-line” credit card transactions performed on our website are fully encrypted and secured by either PayPal or VeriSign™ for your full privacy protection. Once your order has been processed, the only information we retain about your credit card is the last four (4) digits of the card’s number for later reference purposes.

It will NOT be shown as "HTD". It will show as a charge to “OHS Health & Safety Services, Inc.”.  That's because Health-Tests-Direct.com is a personal health service of OHS, Inc. and not a separately-owned company.

Absolutely. However, we must receive your check here at our offices and it must clear the bank before we arrange the blood draw in your city. Essentially, you are “paying in advance” just as you would be doing online with a credit card. Advance payment is one of OUR cost-savings policies that helps us keep YOUR costs lower, so we ask that you please understand our reasoning for this policy.

Please note, however, that paying by check will cause a delay in your testing that is out of our control: banks here in California.  Banks here are allowed by regulation to take up to 10 days before clearing out-of-state checks. (HINT: sending us a cashier’s check or a money order will eliminate the wait for your out-of-town personal check to clear.)

Easy: Don’t give us your phone number or credit card info. Then mail us a money order (a money order does not require your name or signature) for the total amount due for the blood draw and lab analysis. We will e-mail the lab paperwork to you when the money order arrives and email the lab results to you the same day we receive those 2-3 days later. If you want, you can even set up a temporary (and free) “alias” e-mail address at Yahoo! (e.g.,“YourAliasName”@yahoo.com) for the purpose of our email communications with you.

By the way, you DO have to sign a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Notice (required by Federal law, and for your own protection) before we can actually arrange your test(s). Don’t worry, though… print out a copy at home. Sign it with the same ‘alias’ that you will use with us over the phone, and mail it to us along with your money order.

There are two more things we hope that you will feel more comfortable knowing: First, 99% of the blood draw centers we send you to will NOT ask for your photo I.D. when you go in for your blood test. And, in the very-very rare event that one should they do so, don’t feel obligated to show it to them. Instead, leave that blood draw center and immediately call us at 1-800-456-4647 ext. 203. We will find you another draw center nearby! Or, simply return to our site and keep in mind, that your lab tests results are NEVER sent to or shared with the clinic or its personnel that does your blood draw. Only YOU get your lab results, and NOBODY else. So, if you are asked, and you DO decide to show them your drivers license or other ID, rest assured that THEY will NEVER see or know the result of your test(s) anyway!

Offering you the convenience of charging by credit card is an expense to every business. This especially affects Health Tests Direct because with our 50-91% discounted pricing, our profit margins are considerably smaller than “retail” businesses. The $15.00 cancellation charge to you helps us recoup most (but not always all) of the credit card service charges we incur for your ordering/cancelling.  Additionally, there is the administrative time and expense we incur for (1) processing your order, then (2) later having to process your cancellation.  It is far more time-consuming for us than it is for you!

Please remember too, there is a $15.00 fee for later CHANGING your order (adding or deleting one or more tests from your original order). Once you have paid by credit card and your blood draw and lab analysis “Authorization” paperwork has been processed and is ready for print-out from our website, a $15.00 fee applies for any such later change(s) you decide to make. So of course, please be certain to order ONLY the blood tests you want or need and ALL the blood tests you want or need, BEFORE you charge your credit card and check out of the website.

These fees are one of our many means of cost-control that enable US to continually keep your cost for blood testing discounted – for you and everyone else – by 50-91%. Therefore, when you do order blood test(s) with us, please be certain you want to complete them – not to later cancel or change AFTER you have completed your order.  BEFORE you complete your order you will have an opportunity to fully review it. Thank you for understanding our need to apply these fees.

During our normal business hours (Mon-Fri, 8 AM-5 PM California Time), you can reach the knowledgeable people in our Operations Department at 1-800-456-4647 ext. 201, 202, or 203.  We also have a "Chat" line available in the bottom right-hand corner of every web page.  By law, our non-medical personnel CANNOT give you “medical advice”! But they will be happy to help you in any other way they can about using our website correctly or ordering blood tests.

Finally, if you ever encounter a problem with our customer service or anything else that might bother you, please also feel free to call and ask for me directly (1-800-456-4647 ext. 205) or for my wife and business partner, Jean. We founded and own the company and very much value your business and your trust.  Jean or I will do whatever possible to correct any problem you might have experienced with our Direct-Access-Testing services!