Consent to Laboratory Testing

I am the person who will be tested, and I am accepting this consent myself. The information I provide is my own. If someone gave me a Gift, using it is my choice. The purchaser will not receive my selected tests, appointments, requisitions, results or other health information through the Gift.

This consent covers every laboratory test you order through Filia. It sits alongside the Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy, and alongside two documents written by Junction, the company that arranges the ordering physician: a HIPAA Authorization, which lets the physician and the laboratory release your order and results to Filia so we can show them to you, and a Consent to Telehealth, which covers the physician’s review of your order. Both are shown to you at checkout and must be accepted for an order to be placed.

Filia

Operated by Vanguard Performance LLC. We run the website and your account, explain what each test measures, take your payment, and pass your order to Junction. We are not a laboratory, not a medical practice and not a licensed healthcare provider, and using Filia does not make you our patient.

Junction

Adept Labs, Inc., doing business as Junction, arranges for an independent licensed physician from one of its affiliated medical groups, named in the Consent to Telehealth you accept at checkout, to review your order. That physician decides whether to authorize each test, signs the requisition as the ordering physician, evaluates the results when they arrive, and may telephone you about an abnormal or critical result. The physician is licensed in your state and is not employed by Filia.

Quest Diagnostics

Quest Diagnostics Incorporated collects your specimen at one of its patient service centers and analyzes it in its laboratories, which are certified under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA). At the draw you are Quest Diagnostics’s patient, and its own Notice of Privacy Practices applies to what it holds.

You choose the tests; you are not being told by anyone that you need them. The ordering physician reviews what you chose against the information in your account and may decline to authorize a test that is not appropriate for you, for example because of your age, sex or history. A declined test is refunded in full under the Refund Policy.

The physician’s review is limited to authorizing the order and evaluating the results. It does not make the physician your doctor for any other purpose, does not replace your own clinician, and is not a substitute for a medical examination. Nothing about this service is medical advice from Filia.

Bring your requisition and a government-issued photo ID to a Quest Diagnostics patient service center. Quest Diagnostics gives appointments priority over walk-ins and treats anyone more than ten minutes late as a walk-in, so book one and arrive ten minutes early. Some tests require fasting, usually eight hours with water only; your requisition and your account say which. Keep taking prescribed medication unless your own clinician tells you otherwise.

Drawing blood carries small risks: bruising, a collection of blood under the skin, light-headedness or fainting, and rarely infection or nerve irritation at the site. Tell the phlebotomist if you have fainted during a draw before, have a bleeding disorder, or take a blood thinner. If you are unwell after a draw, contact your clinician.

A laboratory result is a measurement, not a diagnosis. The reference range beside it is a statistical range for a population, not a judgment about you, and the educational notes Filia adds are general. A result can be falsely high or falsely low because of timing, hydration, medication, illness, specimen handling or laboratory error, and a single abnormal value often means nothing without a repeat. Only a clinician who knows your history can tell you what a result means for you.

Results can be upsetting and cannot be unseen. If you would rather not learn something about your health without a clinician beside you, do not order the test, or arrange for your clinician to review the results with you.

Results are released to your Filia account once the ordering physician has reviewed them. If you hold a MyQuest account with Quest Diagnostics, the same results may appear there on Quest Diagnostics’s own timetable, which in California, Pennsylvania, Oregon and Maryland can include a hold required by state law. Some results, such as HIV or hepatitis screening results, may be withheld from electronic release until the ordering physician has spoken with you, where state law requires it.

If the laboratory finds a value in its critical range, one that could be immediately dangerous, it telephones the ordering physician, and the ordering physician telephones you. Keep the phone number in your account current for this reason. For an abnormal result that is not critical, the physician decides whether to contact you. Filia does not make these calls and does not monitor results for danger; the physician does.

If you feel unwell or think you are having a medical emergency, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department. Do not wait for a result, a call, or a reply from Filia.

Testing is voluntary, and any HIV test in a panel you choose is one you are requesting yourself. Laboratories and physicians must report certain results, mainly communicable diseases, to state or local public health authorities. Quest Diagnostics and the ordering physician make those reports when the law requires them, without asking you first, and Filia cannot prevent them.

• You must be 18 or older and personally consent to your own testing. Paying through a Gift does not let the purchaser consent for you.
• Test availability depends on the test, laboratory, where you live and where your sample will be collected. Give accurate residence and collection details. We will confirm availability and price before you pay. An order placed using false location information may be cancelled.
• If you are in Maryland: a laboratory test may or may not be covered by health insurance. Filia does not bill insurance for any test.
• Testing is self-pay. Filia does not bill insurance, Medicare or Medicaid, does not supply diagnosis or procedure codes, and you agree not to submit our charges to any of them. You may be able to use a health savings or flexible spending account; check with its administrator.

You can withdraw this consent at any time before your specimen is collected by cancelling the order; the Refund Policy says what is refunded. After collection the test proceeds, because the laboratory has your specimen and the physician has a duty to review what it finds. You can revoke the HIPAA Authorization by writing to Junction at the address given in that document; revoking it stops Filia receiving further results but does not undo what has already been shared.

By checking the consent box at checkout you confirm that:

1. You have read this document and had the chance to ask Filia questions about it at info@myfilia.com.
2. You are 18 or older, ordering for yourself, and in a state where the service is available.
3. You chose the tests yourself, and you understand that an independent physician from Junction’s network will decide whether to authorize them and will act as the ordering physician.
4. You ask Quest Diagnostics and the ordering physician to release your results to Filia so that we can show them to you, and you understand that the same results may also reach you through Quest Diagnostics directly.
5. You understand that results are information, not a diagnosis, that they can be wrong, and that you will take any result you are concerned about to a clinician of your own.
6. You understand who will call you about a critical result, and that no one at Filia will.
7. You consent to the blood draw and accept its usual risks.
8. You understand that the physician’s review does not make anyone your doctor for ongoing care, and that nothing in this service is medical advice from Filia.