Testing Testing Testing
Testing is probably what most of you have heard over and over again that is needed in the news to re-open due to the Corona Virus.
We have decided to do what we can and help with testing for our Health Atlast Patients, Family and Friends.
Our clinics are all still open and have telemedicine available. See all 6 locations and services at www.healthatlastclinics.com
Telemedicine is making a virtual house call.
We will call you, video chat with you, whichever you prefer to meet any of your needs.
Medicare as of 04/30/2020 is now covering not only medical doctor visits but also physical therapy via telemedicine.
Through video our Doctor of Physical Therapy Mansoor can walk you through your personalized treatment plans.
Couple updates of availability of everyone.
We are still open seeing patients for Medical, Chiropractic, Acupuncture and Physical Therapy.
Dr. Kamau Kokayi, M.D. our medical director who does family medicine, homeopathy and naturopathy will be available to see patients in the office
Monday May 4th 1pm-4pm
Saturday May 9th 9:30am-12:30pm
And telemedicine by appointment
Dr. Vishal Thakral, D.O. and Dr. Adam Silver, D.O. – Doctors of Osteopathy specializing in Physical Medicine, Sports Medicine and Pain Management are available to see patients Tuesday and Friday.
Dr. Mansoor AlAmeri, PhD Physical Therapy available to see patients Saturday 8am-5pm
Chiropractic is available by Dr. Wayne Higashi, D.C., A.T.C. and Dr. Stephanie Higashi, D.C. during our normal office hours M, T, W, F 9-7 and Sat 9-1
Acupuncture Luz Richardson, LAc and Jiny Lee, LAc
Are available throughout the week and Saturday based on appointment requests.
We are available to do Telemedicine. Most insurance companies cover it. If you would like to check prior to your appointment you can call and ask your carrier if telemedicine is covered.
Telemedicine
99241 5-10 minutes
99422 11-20 minutes
99423 21 or more minutes
Or standard Evaluation management codes
99211
99212
99213
99214
With a place of service 02 meaning the visit was done through telemedicine.
TESTING
Other researched options - Labcorp is now offering home tests for $119.
You have to enter your zip code and answer some questions.
It looks like at least when I entered my zip code they are only doing health care providers and first responders but it is something you can continue to check. This option does not appear to be covered by insurance.
What we are doing
Our hope is by offering testing to you that we will have the information the country is needing and wanting to help safely open up our community and country.
Our other hope is that it will help each person ease questions, fears or anxiety that may exist.
I am sure during this time of quarantine one time or another you have or you have had someone you know think that they may have had the virus awhile a go when maybe they had a cold back in November, December, January or February.
Or maybe you think well I could be one of those that don’t have much symptoms and I did have a headache one day.
This will end the guessing and provide knowledge and information.
We are working with Quest Labs and Corona Labs to help offer to our patients, their friends and family to get more people tested via Anti-body Testing and nasopharyngeal COVID-19 gene testing if needed.
(Note we do not get paid and have no financial interest in either lab and do not get paid for lab services performed by the lab. Quest and Corona Labs are just labs available to perform these services. You can go to any lab you prefer that performs the test or see if available through the city or county testing sites - https://covid19.lacounty.gov/testing/ or through city testing)
Here is a simple explanation of what all of this is about:
Definitions
Immune Response: The reaction of cells and fluid in the body to the presence of something not recognized as a part of the body itself.
Antigen: A toxin or other foreign substance which induces an immune response in the body, especially the production of antibodies.
Examples of Antigens – viruses, bacteria, mold
Antibody: A blood protein in response to and counteracting a specific antigen. Antibodies combine with viruses, bacteria or foreign substances in the blood.
Serum: When you separate blood it is the amber colored protein rich liquid that provides immunity.
Immunoglobulins: Class of proteins present in the serum and cells of the immune system which function as antibodies.
Immunoglobulin G (Abbreviated as IgG): Is the most common antibody in the blood a type of antibody present to destroy antigens. Typically present after 7-10 days of infection, it often indicates past infection.
ANTIBODY TEST IgG Test
Doing an IgG Antibody test will determine if you have been exposed to COVID-19. Meaning at some point your body has been exposed to the Antigen of the virus and has created an immune response by creating IgG Antibodies.
This indicates at some time you have been exposed.
The test is FDA authorized through Emergency Use Authorization (EUA)
https://www.fda.gov/media/136623/download
If ordered by our physicians it is covered by most insurance and covered 100% by Medicare.
If you go yourself without a prescription from a physician directly to Quest it will be $119 per Quest’s website.
Per Quest the test is 99% accurate.
They have done 75,000 antibody tests and can do 1 million per week.
How to get tested for the Antibody IgG Test
Either come into the office, only if you have no symptoms and don’t think you have been exposed recently, and we will do an evaluation and the MDs will write a prescription for you to go to Quest labs to get your blood drawn for the IgG test and for any other relevant or medically necessary lab test you may need.
Quest will draw your blood and your blood will be analyzed for IgG response to COVID-19.
We will get the results to provide to you within 1-3 days.
Alternatively you can call us, instead of coming into the office and schedule an appointment via telemedicine from the comfort of your home. Meaning you will have a virtual visit with our doctors who will do a consult with you over the phone, or video (whichever medium you prefer) and then they can order the test and any other medically necessary test you may need via Quest online portal and you will be able to go to any Quest Labs to get your blood drawn and they will perform the test and send the results over to the office.
By having the test ordered by a physician we have been told by Quest that the test is covered 100% by Medicare and is covered by most insurance carriers which may be subject to any copay or deductible that your plan may have; however most insurance carriers have waived copays for COVID-19 testing. We don’t do the billing for the lab so it would be up to your insurance regarding coverage of the test.
We have been told by Quest that if the test is ordered by a physician and it is not covered that the cash rate is $60 for our patients.
If you want to check or verify for yourself you can call your insurance company and ask if you have insurance coverage for the IgG Antibody COVID-19 test which has a Current Procedure Terminology (CPT) Code of 39504.
If you have a negative test it means that your immune system has not been exposed or created antibodies against the virus.
If you have a positive test it means you have been exposed and that your immune system has developed antibodies to the virus.
It does not say where you are at on the time frame of exposure, though usually IgG indicates past infection or at least 7-10 days prior. Meaning the test does not say if you have a recent or distant past exposure it just determines you have been exposed and have an immune response.
If you have a positive IgG test and feel symptoms you would then need a nasopharyngeal swab gene test to test for the virus.
This test can be performed at the county and city testing sites or depending on the case will be performed if needed at an off site location where different doctors and staff that are not treating the daily patients will be and will not interact with any of the treating staff and patients. This is done to keep maximum protection and isolation of our patients that are getting treated.
Note to date we still have zero COVID-19 positive patients and staff.
We do still have strict check in procedure of temperatures taken, required masks or provided masks if you need one, hands washing prior to sign in and no shoes on when on the treatment tables.
Gene Test for COVID-19
This test is a nasalpharangeal swab that detects the genetic material of the virus.
The qualitative results from the test are either the person is infected and considered to be able to transmit the disease.
Or Negative for the Virus.
Why Test
If coffee shops were open I am sure we could sit together and share coffee and a conversation of whether to test or not test.
I have called many patients and have heard many different perspectives of testing versus not testing.
I will share my personal perspective
The good news is the majority of people that have had the virus survive and get over it.
People that have underlying conditions are at greater risk.
You could of course be of the view point of don’t test don’t tell but you do run the risk of being positive and giving it to others.
If you think herd immunity will be beneficial that is one perspective but if you have it and are infective and don’t know it and give it to someone that is elderly with underlying health conditions truthfully it can be deadly to them.
You could think well I am just going to stay home and it doesn’t matter.
True but you will probably have to leave your home eventually and it would be good to know if you have had it already or have it currently.
One of the most altruistic perspective I heard from one of my patients that came in today that got tested today is she is Type O blood type a Universal Donor and if she has antibodies and there are treatments that could use her antibodies she will donate her antibodies.
There is a lot of debate back and forth about if you have had the virus if you could get it again.
I did receive a text from Dr. David Agus, MD of CBS today where the tests that were found in South Korea where people had COVID and then tested negative and then weeks later tested positive found actually the positive tests were false positives since the tests were only picking up fragments of virus not active virus.
Thus still leaving it a possibility once you get the virus you may have immunity to not get it again.
No one has a definitive answer on this.
It is possible the COVID-19 virus will be similar to Chicken Pox where if you get it you usually do not get it again.
If the science determines you have immunity this may be the determining factor that allows for people to safely return to work.
To clarify this has not been confirmed to be the case with the corona virus but testing and knowing your status once this is known may be extremely helpful.
I remember when I was around 16 I had already had the chicken pox at age 8 and there was a family who had children that got the chicken poxs but the husband had never had it. I was able to take care of their children for them until the kids were no longer contagious to protect their dad. He was able to not get sick, continue to work and be a provider for their family. An example of having antibodies against a virus, not being able to get it again and a way to help others.
I do think in the not so distant future that we won’t all be quarantined.
That the healthy, and those showing natural immunity which is the best kind, your own body’s immunity, will be free to work and in fact be able to help others without risk of getting infected or falling ill to the virus.
I know this is all new, new territory and thus called novel (new and not resembling something formerly known).
It is a process.
I have always practiced health care with the philosophy if something could help and doesn’t hurt it is an option that should be considered.
I am hoping having more information you would be able to know by testing:
Have you been exposed to the virus
Do you have the virus actively and are contagious
Do you have antibodies for the virus
My hope is that the antibodies will be what is needed to protect you to never get infected again. Which through more research, more testing, more time we will know as the world finds out if that is the case.
I hope you find this useful.
I hope if you want to get tested you do so.
And most importantly I hope that everyone stays as healthy as possible.
Remember the majority of people that are losing their lives to this virus usually have underlying health conditions. In fact in today’s briefing from LA County it was reported of the 1,111 people that have died 92% of the people had underlying health conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and cancer.
Do everything you can even if something small every day to limit those underlying health condition and improve underlying health conditions it will give you a fighting chance and may save your life.
I think about and pray every day for everyone’s strength and health.
I pray every day for anyone that has lost someone to this virus.
My prayer is we love you and we know as spirits we last forever we just miss you so in the meantime keep everyone healthy so we don’t have to miss those close to us.
My personal very recent story
My grandmother in Colorado on my mother’s side will be 87 next week.
She was in a memory facility in Colorado and it is believed that the care givers there brought the virus to the facility.
My grandmother was taken to the hospital a little over a week ago due to low oxygen levels – 86%.
She tested positive for COVID-19.
On a great note my grandmother born in 1933 in Iowa, where the chiropractic profession originated in 1895, she was raised on a farm and she has had chiropractic the majority of her life and has taken vitamins and eaten nutritious meals every day including dessert J.
She has never smoked or drank alcohol in her life.
She is getting stronger every day. When she was admitted to the hospital she was on 2 liters of oxygen, she is now off all oxygen, she called me today where she said “hello darling granddaughter I love you” and they are now transferring her to a rehabilitation facility because of her improvements.
While 9 people that stayed at the memory facility have died.
We demanded early testing and early treatment and I believe both saved her life.
I care about every disease and thing that causes deaths including Veterans that commit suicide daily which is why we treat our Veterans.
Cancer, heart disease, car accidents, drug addiction, opioid crisis and all the rest.
But like fighting against anything we have to do what we can when we can and where we can.
I think though inconvenient and no one likes getting their blood drawn and for sure no one wants something put up their nose.
Knowledge is power, and let’s together do what we can.
If we all do our part we should be able to safely get through it all.
We will be better able to protect the vulnerable like our elderly, and those with underlying conditions and we will more confidently be able to know if we should or should not be out and about.
I hope this email finds you well.
I want you to know you can email me or call me anytime
My personal email is
Office 310-390-9018 and if it is outside office hours and an emergency the office voice mail has my cell phone number.
Wishing you all well. And again thank you for being part of our Health Atlast family – we do love you.
