National medical lab sends thousands false test results by Dallas Medical Malpractice Attorney
Quest Diagnostics affirms thousands of false vitamin D test results.
AmericanInjuryNews.com–Quest Diagnostics, the nation’s largest medical laboratory testing company, reported thousands may have false medical test results. The New York Times, alerted consumers nationwide on Friday, January 9, 2009, of one of the largest patient test recalls in the country. Apparently, people who have had their vitamin D levels tested by Quest, in the last two years, may have received false results. This news has led to a national concern throughout the medical and legal communities.
Medical experts are calling for better quality control from testing facilities nationwide. While lawyers are wondering if the tests are even needed to begin with. Doctors and medical specialists rely on laboratory testing as a basis for medical diagnosis and treatments. A patient whose test results falsely reflect a high vitamin D level, will be instructed by their health care provider to not take vitamin D when they may really need it. Patients falsely testing low for vitamin D, when they really have a high vitamin D level will be prescribed vitamin D pills. This could lead to toxic overdose of vitamin D. Many laboratory tests, including Quest’s vitamin D test, don’t require approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) www.fda.gov. This is interesting since their has been a storm of recent medial research published suggesting vitamin D deficiencies can lead to bone weakness, cancer, heart attacks, osteoporosis, autoimmune diseases and many other illnesses. Since labs don’t need approval by the FDA this leaves testing standards and guidelines to the whims of the individual laboratory companies.
Legal experts are continuing to question the validity of all of these claims since laboratories across the county are reporting a doubling in vitamin D tests effectively increasing revenues. Medicare reimburses $40 dollars for a vitamin D test. This equates to huge revenues, considering most people on Medicare are elderly. Bone loss and osteoporosis prevention has become a national health care initiative for the 50 plus year-old population. The New York Times reported some doctors claim their patients have been billed as much as $200 dollars, by Quest, for this simple vitamin D test. Now with the possibility of thousands of false test results, misdiagnosis and medical mistreatment of patients, by doctors, because of these false results, the medical and legal communities are in an uproar.
Quest diagnostics based in Madison, New Jersey reported $5.45 billion in revenue for the first nine months of 2008. The company does not attribute their wind fall earnings by any one laboratory test; however, several questions seem to remain. Is vitamin D deficiency and the need for laboratory testing a national health crisis? With test results varying so widely from laboratory to laboratory, how does a doctor even begin to determine what a patient’s actual vitamin level is so they can prescribe the right treatment plan?
AmericanInjuryNews.com by Dallas Injury Lawyer Amy K. Witherite
Practice areas: Dallas Medical Malpractice Attorney
Amy Witherite. Eberstein & Witherite, LLP. 3100 Monticello Avenue, Suite 500. Dallas, TX 75205 - Toll Free: (888) 407-6669
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