During these difficult times, Lowcountry Urgent Care (LUC) is open and available to collect specimens to test for COVID-19. LUC is capable of collecting specimens from patients who have symptoms and meet the criteria for being tested. Upon collection of the specimen, specimens will be sent to an FDA-approved lab for analysis.
The national average turn-around time is approximately 10 days for the test results to be sent back to clinics.
To insure the safety of the staff and patients, LUC is following CDC guidelines on proper protocol inside and outside in the parking lot on Bells Highway.
Due to the limited number of tests available, staff must perform a medical evaluation on patients to determine if they meet the criteria set forth to be tested. Once the specimen is collected, it will be sent to an approved laboratory for testing. Once the specimen is sent to the laboratory, doctors must wait for the lab to send back the results before informing patients.
LUC staff is constantly checking for lab results so they can inform patients as quickly as possible, but has no involvement in the testing once it is sent to the lab. Most labs are overwhelmed by the number of tests coming in, and most labs are taking several days to test the specimens. LUC will continue to try to get the results as soon as possible.
There is a lot of confusing information around about the government or insurance companies paying for testing, and it is unclear how that will all work out. Any money LUC collects for the medical evaluation that is paid to the center by a patient’s insurance company will be refunded as appropriate. Urgent Care has not collected any money from patients for the actual COVID-19 test. The testing laboratory will bill directly for the testing.
