Ohio Valley Medical Center and East Ohio Regional Hospital are now offering a health screening service that doesn’t require a physician’s order and allows patients to pay an up front fee for laboratory screenings to assess their current health status.

“So many patients have a high deductible with their insurance,” said Kelly Bettem, Ohio Valley Health Services and Education vice president of outpatient services.

“This program gives the patients a cost-effective option to have access to basic lab testing at our many convenient locations.

“Our goal is to meet the needs of our patients, and the Direct-to-Consumer program is one way to provide more value to our patients.”

For example, if patients want to know about their heart health or kidney function or would like a diabetic screening or profile, they can walk into one of the OVMC-EORH laboratories and ask for that test.

“Direct-to-Consumer” means the patient pays the fee and receives the service.

This program enables the uninsured the ability to receive quality testing and can be utilized by patients who may be in between doctor’s visits, but want to know their health status.

Payment is due at the time of testing.

The results can be accessed through the patient portal by logging on to www.ovmc-eorh.com.

Testing locations include East Ohio Regional Hospital Outpatient Center in St. Clairsville, Ohio Valley Medical Center Valley Professional in Wheeling, OVMC main floor drawing area, OVMC main laboratory on the East Building’s fourth floor and East Ohio Regional Hospital in Martins Ferry.