Presence Answers
Labs, imaging & testing
Virtual care cannot draw your blood or run a scan, but it can order both and review the results with you. These answers explain the practical sequence and how pricing is quoted first.
Written by the Presence care team · No visit guarantees a prescription or a note · Membership is not insurance
Full answers in this category
How do labs and imaging work with virtual care?
A virtual provider cannot draw blood or run a scan, but can order both. The practical sequence: what gets ordered, where you go, who bills you, and how results are reviewed.
What blood tests does primary care usually order, and why?
The handful of blood tests that make up most primary-care laboratory work — what each one measures, the question it answers, when it is ordered, and why a panel is chosen rather than everything at once.
What do a CBC and a CMP actually show?
A plain-English guide to the two most commonly ordered panels: what the blood count and metabolic panel components represent, what patterns tend to prompt, and why one value out of range is rarely the whole story.
What do A1c and cholesterol results actually mean?
What a hemoglobin A1c and a lipid panel measure, why cholesterol decisions depend on overall risk rather than one number, what moves each result, and how monitoring intervals are chosen.
What does a TSH test show, and when is thyroid testing worthwhile?
Why TSH is the usual first thyroid test, what a high or low result points towards, which follow-on tests are added, what makes a result unreliable, and why one abnormal TSH is not a diagnosis.
Do I need to fast for blood work?
Which common tests require fasting and which do not, what fasting actually means, what to do about water, coffee and medications, and what happens if you ate by mistake.
How often should you get routine blood work?
Why there is no universal interval for blood work, what actually sets the frequency, when more frequent testing is genuinely useful, and why more testing is not the same as better care.
What happens after an abnormal lab result?
The four things a provider can do with an abnormal result, why repeating is so often the right move, which results need attention the same day, and how to get a result explained rather than left on a portal.
Ready to act on this? Labs & Imaging Savings
Quick answers
Short answers to the questions people ask before booking. Each links to the page that owns the full detail.
Can a virtual provider order lab work?
Yes. Labs are ordered through your provider and drawn at a facility near you, at member pricing with no insurance required.
Because the price is quoted before anything is ordered, the usual reason people skip a work-up — not knowing what the bill will be — is removed. Savings of up to 80–90% are compared with traditional hospital pricing; not every test saves that much, which is why we quote your actual price.
Limits: Not every test is available at every partner facility, and prices vary by test and location.
Can someone review my blood work with me?
Yes — including results drawn elsewhere. A result review goes through what the values mean, what they do not mean, and what happens next.
People routinely receive a portal number with no explanation. A review puts the values into the context of your history and medications, and decides whether repeat testing, treatment or referral is the right next step.
Limits: A review cannot settle everything; some results require examination, imaging or specialist input.
What does an X-ray, ultrasound, CT or MRI cost without insurance?
Member pricing through imaging partners, quoted before you go. Imaging is where price shopping matters most — the same study can differ enormously between facilities.
Tell us the study and your location and we quote a range and tell you what to ask for. Savings of up to 80–90% are compared with traditional hospital pricing and require no insurance; the actual figure depends on the study, facility and location.
Limits: Imaging, labs and specialist services are not included in membership dues. Amounts are not guaranteed and are not insurance benefits.
Are labs included in my membership?
No — labs, imaging, medications, specialist care and emergency care are not included in dues. Membership gives you access to negotiated pricing on them.
This distinction matters and we state it everywhere: dues buy access to care and to partner pricing, not the tests themselves. The pricing is what usually makes a work-up affordable.
Limits: Partner pricing varies by test, study, medication, facility and availability, and is not insurance.
I already have a lab order — can you just price it?
Yes. Send the test names and we quote the member self-pay price before anything is drawn.
You are not obliged to use the facility your order was written for. Knowing the price first is usually the difference between following through and postponing the work-up indefinitely.
Limits: Some panels are only available through particular partners; a quote is specific to your tests and location.
What screening should I be having?
It depends on your age, sex, family history and risk factors — that is precisely what a preventive planning visit is for.
A provider maps which screening is due, orders what can be ordered at member pricing, and tells you what must be done in person. We do not publish generic screening schedules as if they applied to everyone.
Limits: Screening recommendations are individual; some require in-person procedures we do not provide.
Other answer categories
About this information
Written by the Presence care team for patients considering care with us. Presence care is delivered by licensed providers, including a board-certified Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner — not by a physician, and not by software. Meet your provider.
This page explains how our service works. It is general information, not a diagnosis, and it is not a substitute for an evaluation of your own situation. Whether testing, treatment or a prescription is appropriate is decided during a visit.
If this is an emergency — chest pain, trouble breathing, stroke symptoms, severe bleeding, or thoughts of harming yourself — call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department. See our emergency care notice.
Still deciding?
Call and we will tell you honestly which option fits your household — including when the answer is none of ours.