School is Back – Take Back Your Health

It’s that time of year–kids from preschool through college are heading back to school. This means it’s the perfect opportunity to do a re-set and focus on the family’s health, coinciding with National Health Center Week (August 9-15). What you may not realize is that Any Lab Test Now® is a “health center” giving you direct access to thousands of beneficial lab tests to ensure wellness.  

A wide-angle view of a group of three male students who are also friends moving into their new student accommodation. They are chatting with each other and carrying their belongings through the corridor.
Useful Lab Tests For Concerned Parents

As your children head back to school, there are any number of lab tests you can utilize. Any Lab Test Now® is a family health center, we provide many lab tests to check a number of health concerns. Perhaps you’re unsettled, wondering if your son or daughter picked up bad habits over the summer—research shows more than 3,000 teens try marijuana for the first time every day.  

Parents who are worried their child could use or abuse drugs either in high school or while away at college can easily have their son or daughter tested.  Any Lab Test Now® does drug testing, no appointment necessary.  

For example, we may utilize a screening called a Blood 5-Panel Drug Test to determine the presence or absence of 5 types of drugs or their metabolites in the bloodstream. This blood drug test checks for the presence of 5 drug metabolites including:

  1. Amphetamine/Methamphetamines
  2. Marijuana
  3. Cocaine
  4. Opiates
  5. Phencyclidine

Any Lab Test Now® can also conduct tests to see if someone has been vaping, a habit that the Surgeon General has declared an epidemic among youth. The choices parents have for Nicotine tests available at Any Lab Test Now® include: The girl smokes an electronic cigarette on the street.

  • Urine Test:
    A  Good choice if a parent suspects the child has used nicotine over the last few days. An instant test is available, and parents can get results within five to ten minutes.
  • Hair Follicle Test:
    A good option for parents who think their child has been either vaping or smoking nicotine for a long time, and the child might stop using just to get through the test. It takes 3 days for nicotine to start showing in hair strands.
     
  • Blood Test:
     A simple blood draw can detect traces of nicotine about 2 hours after use.


Testing at Any Lab Test Now® is confidential. No one has access to results but parents. You own the results and you can even use an anonymous name to protect your child. Most importantly, the results give parents and other loved ones’ answers so they can take next steps if needed. 

You can’t put a price tag on peace of mind. Since thousands of kids are going off to college for the first time, it might not hurt to get basic testing done to make you as a parent know that you’ve done all you can to protect your child. 


Vaccine Immunity Check

Whether you have a young child going to daycare, preschool, grade school, high school, or college, there is one constant—making sure your child is current on vaccinations protecting them with everything from measles to chickenpox. Most states have laws requiring certain immunizations for school-aged children. 

Problem is, immunization records can get lost and often be difficult to track down, especially if you’ve moved over the years. Any Lab Test Now® can help. We can do a simple blood test called the MMR Titer that checks if you are immune to measles, mumps, and rubella by measuring your antibody levels, thus determining if your immunization is up-to-date. The results demonstrate whether or not your immune system has the capability to respond to an infection from one of the viruses.

Take Back Mom’s Health

Knowing the kids are taken care of is a sense of relief for parents. Especially for moms, it’s been a busy summer, running non-stop, taking the kids to swim practice, soccer camp, or a friend’s house, and now getting ready for school can be exhausting and stressful.  Any Lab Test Now® can run a Cortisol Test to see how much daily life stressors have been affecting mom’s overall health.  

Taking Charge of Your Health

Taking these proactive measures helps you advocate for your family’s health. It puts you in the driver’s seat. Blood work, after all, can provide many much-needed answers about our health. This trend is called healthcare consumerism. It’s all about giving people the tools and control to live their best, healthiest lives.  Take the control to say; I need this test done whether or not my insurance company will pay for it. 

If you are ready to check your family’s health as you head back to school, Any Lab Test Now® is the health center you’ve been looking for. Call now to schedule an appointment at a location near you to take back your health.

 

Two best friends are furnishing their new apartment together

Required Drug Testing for TANF-TCA Applicants Comes to Florida

You may have seen online and on the news the controversy surrounding recent efforts by state governments to require that welfare applicants be drug tested before they are approved to receive benefits.  While many people support this move, after all most of us are paying state taxes which pay for welfare, a surprising number oppose it.  Some welfare recipients have even been quoted as saying that they think it’s a good idea.  Paying for drug testing for the large number of new applicants will cost state governments significant amounts of money.  In Florida, which passed their new drug testing requirement to be effective on July 1, 2011, the estimated cost for the program is expected to be in the millions of dollars at a time of severe budget cuts.  It is likely the bill will be challenged not only because it will be expensive to implement but it has already been ruled unconstitutional in other states, such as Michigan, where the law lasted only 5 weeks.

New applicants for Florida’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families – Temporary Cash Assistance (TANF-TCA) must pay out of their own pocket for a drug test and will be reimbursed only if they pass the test.  During the application process, applicants are provided with a website listing testing locations (http://www.dcf.state.fl.us/programs/access/drugtestsites.shtml) from which they can select “List of Drug Testing Providers” to find locations by county.  The prices of the tests are included in the listing so that applicants know what to expect when they arrive.    Because applicants also know that they will only be reimbursed and receive money after passing the test it could have the effect of self-elimination from the application process.  It would make sense that only applicants who are not using drugs will even apply for benefits.

Applying for unemployment, welfare and food stamps can be stressful and those who have struggled and recently had to try to get financial support may feel demoralized.  Adding a drug test will not help those already dealing with a lack of self-confidence.  The additional step of drug testing, beyond the emotional aspects of the testing, can only be seen by applicants as a delay in receiving benefits and a judgment on those who apply.  The ANY LAB TEST NOW® locations listed on the state website can provide discreet, professional testing that won’t add an additional layer of emotional stress to the already difficult situation of applying for state benefits.    The ability to obtain drug testing quickly, without long lines, at these locations will help to speed the process and it is a boon that the state of Florida is reaching out to private providers of the tests and hasn’t tried to take on this task itself.  One of the benefits of working with ANY LAB TEST NOW® locations is that the Medical Assistants are familiar with the TCA Drug Testing Information Acknowledgement and Consent Release form required by the state and will ensure that applicants get the correct test.

Whether or not the bill, signed by Governor Rick Scott on May 31, remains in place is still to be seen, but Florida seems to be handling the implementation well.  Time will tell whether the drug testing requirement will really save the state welfare dollars as Gov. Scott has proclaimed.  The inconvenience of adding another step to the process may deter people who are in great need from applying and therefore, some children who are relying on their parents to provide for them, whether working or not.  Hopefully those applying will follow through and give the process time to work the kinks out.  Using private drug testing facilities, such as ANY LAB TEST NOW®, allows applicants more flexibility in scheduling and professionalism to meet their needs and get them on track to receiving much needed benefits, and ultimately back on their feet.