Educating patients critical to controlling out-of-pocket clinical laboratory test costs.

• Regardless, there is a wide disparity in costs between services delivered by independent providers— and those delivered by hospitalaffiliated facilities. For example, an independent clinical lab would charge $33 for a Complete Blood Count—vs. a hospital-affiliated lab’s charge of $45; $53 for a Comprehensive Metabolic Panel (CMP), which includes 14 basic chemistry tests consisting of glucose, BUN, Creatinine, Calcium, Total bilirubin, AST, ALT, Alk. Phosphatase, Total Protein, Albumin, and electrolytes—vs. $474; $52 for a TSH test—vs. $87, $21 for a U/A vs. $40, and $52 for a PSA vs. $65.81