DAT Franchise in Fort Lauderdale Focuses on "Sex and Drugs"

A recent article about a Florida direct access testing (DAT) franchise operation provides more details than are generally available about this type of business but casts the field in a somewhat unsavory light (see: Store does walk-in lab tests). I have covered direct access testing in detail in many previous notes. Below is an excerpt from this article with boldface emphasis mine:

Tom Noonan and son Travis stand outside their Any Lab Test Now store...in Fort Lauderdale. Their franchise conducts about 1,500 kinds of lab tests...."This is a business of sex and drugs.''...Since the May opening of the Any Lab Test Now store, tests for sexually transmitted diseases and illegal drugs have been the most common....Travis Noonan is the first franchisee of Atlanta-based Any Lab Test Now to open in Broward or Miami-Dade counties....[Any Lab Test Now] was founded in 1992, but only began offering franchise opportunities last year....Prices for tests, including cholesterol, hepatitis and PSA (prostate-specific antigen), to name a few, start at $49....Any Lab charges a franchise fee of $30,000 and estimates it takes another $50,000 to launch a store....Franchisees also pay a royalty fee to Any Lab of 6 percent in the first year and 8 percent after the first anniversary. The store employs two medical assistants who are trained to administer tests, including drawing blood. Specimens are then sent to a lab -- giants Quest Diagnostics and Laboratory Corp. are used -- for diagnostic testing....Any Lab has its share of competition. Besides hospitals and doctors' offices, there are online companies that arrange for low-cost testing. Among them is Miami's EconoLabs. EconoLabs has negotiated discounts with Quest and Laboratory Corp. of America because of the large volume of business it sends them, says Dr. Efrain Arroyave, EconoLabs' medical director. It sends customers directly to the labs for the tests.

I have the following comments about this article:

• It's true that a large component of DAT testing relates to STDs and illegal drugs. Because many companies screen job candidates as part of the interview process, individuals often test themselves using DAT sites to see if they are "clean" prior to applying for such jobs. Of course, home drug testing kits will also provide the same information. Here is a link to such a site that displays the following motto on its home page: Creating a Drug Free World Begins in the Home.
• Any Lab Test Now is the first company, to my knowledge, that offers franchises for "bricks and mortar" DAT sites. As noted in the article above, the company's business model differs from that of competitors such as EconoLabs, cited in the article, and web-based DAT sites. The Any Lab Test Now personnel perform their own blood draws for clients as opposed to sending them to the patient service centers (PSCs) maintained by the large national reference labs that actually perform the lab testing.
• Probably because of their higher cost structure, the Any Lab Test Now site described in the article above charges more for its lab tests. Note the charge of $49 for a cholesterol. EcnonoLabs in Miami charges $26 for a "Comprehensive Metabolic Panel (CMP-14) (AKA: SMAC-12)" that includes 14 individual tests.
• I was a little surprised that the article reveals that Lab Corp and Quest Diagnostics are the test performing labs for both Any Lab Test Now and EconoLabs and also that these lab giants discount their work for their DAT clients. Both of these companies have kept their involvement in the DAT world relatively quiet to avoid channel conflict with their physician clients. Quest had a DAT subsidiary called QuesTest but exited this market in 2006 (see: QuesTest Bails Out of the DAT Market).

Here's a recent and authoritative article on the DAT industry (see: Direct-to-Consumer Testing and Its Impact on the Lab Market) that has this to say about LabCorp's involvement:

... the primary lab provider for DTC companies is LabCorp. The reason for this is straightforward: DTC companies now operate nationally via the Internet and, as a result, need a national network of service centers where patients can have blood drawn or provide urine. [A provider of DAT services] says, "We primarily use LabCorp and have Quest as a backup, as needed. They're the only two labs we can work with because they're the only two labs that have a national network of patient service centers, and that's important for delivery."