Why doesn't Igenex file with insurance companies?

ummm wow $600!!!!!  I can understand it being great to answers as it took me two years just to get a diffferent diagnosis other than fibro BUT....I do not have $600 to pay for lab testing especially when I am unsure about insurance reimbursing me.  I wonder why IgeneX doesn't file insurance? 

You can submit the bill to your Insurance Co., and in alot of cases many people have gotten partially or fully (depending on ins. co and deductible) reimbursed.

I think that the services provided by Igenex for people with Lyme disease are invaluable.....there is nothing "suspicious" about Igenex!

I had the Western Blot done by Igenex and paid $475 for it, am currently trying to get money back from my insurance company. At most I will get 50% back because Igenex is an "out-of-network" provider. But I think that the tests were well worth the money. My Western Blot was negative by CDC standards but positive by Igenex standards. My LLMD goes by the Igenex results in any case; now I'm paying another $600+ for testing for co-infections....I will get the results in March.

IMHO, these charges are NOT unusually high considering that these tests require sensitive DNA testing. Have you ever looked at the list of charges from a normal lab when you've had a lot of blood tests run? Especially if they are doing genetic testing?? The charges are frequently in the hundreds of dollars, the difference is that your insurance usually covers it so you don't think about it.

Here is a description of what Igenex does from a recent thread started by Deejavu (Denise):

"One thing for sure is that there are more strains of lyme than most labs like Quest or Labcorp currently test for. Medicine is not a black and white science. There are a lot of gray areas. The experts know that there are over 30 strains of Bb.

Where Quest, Labcorp, etc. make there lyme probes they use rabbit antigens from 2 strains of Lyme.

IgeneX uses samples from human lyme patients from all over the United States and Europe and from patients who had early, middle and late stage lyme. Also, when a western blot is done there is an acidic gel that is used to separate out the bands. Most labs use a 10% gel. IgeneX uses a 12.5% gel so they get better separation of the bands.

Igenex was taken to U.S. court by the state of New York, the FDA and I believe the state of California because they were claiming that Igenex was putting out false positives. When this occurs the scrutiny that a lab is put under is microscopic. They were cleared of any and all charges of wrong doing."

Igenex is on the cutting edge of Lyme disease research....thank goodness they are courageous enough to stand up to the bureaucrats!

bucci said...
Humm..my Igenex bill was $900.

you got a deal. i wonder if they did same amount of testing??

I still don't know how to read it anyway.

You know before I did the testing with igenex and quest and labcorp 25tubes all together.
my doctor gave me teasel root and japaneese knotweed to take a dropper of each twice a day
for one week. I got so sick. She knew it would happen too because before even doing the blood work
just from examining me in the office she said "I am a thousand percent sure you have lyme."

The clinical diagnosis is so important done by right doctor. I wonder why the teasel and japknotweed
for a week before testing. Maybe because the lyme was so old??

Hi bucci,

Do you still have the print-out? Sounds as though they might have been doing the Western Blot plus testing for some of the coinfections at the same time?

Would the teasel/knotweed "stir up" things and make it easier to detect the Lyme disease? I don't know.....

JoAnn

Thanks Cheezhead. I went to this blog the other day and there is some useful information there.