Chris Kresser: Next from Helen, “What’s the best way to deal with increased resistance to [the] cost of testing along with [the] cost of case review? It’s very easy to lose patients when they’re told up-front the cost of basic testing in order to get to the root of their problem. I’m in a rural area that’s middle income and lower. These patients don’t have anywhere else to go, a farther drive, but they’re unable to pay for Cyrex tests and other basic labs along with the consultation, so they don’ schedule. Any tips [on how] not to get frustrated regarding this and ways to go about it?”
Yes. We always have to work with the patients that are in front of us, and it sounds like, with your population, that the testing is maybe a challenge. I think rather than get discouraged by
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that, which, of course, is easy to do, and I understand why you would be, I’ve come to believe, especially in the last few years, that we can make a lot of progress with our patients with no testing at all. This is why I’ve become such a big advocate for health coaching. In many cases, diet, lifestyle, and behavior change are driving 80 percent, if not more, of the issues that we’ll see in our practice, especially if you’re working with patients who are overweight, have diabetes, and [are] facing a lot of the kinds of issues that you might see in those areas.
I would focus on the bloodwork, which we haven’t covered yet, but we will in the later part of this course, because that can be covered by insurance. Genova is probably one of the better labs in terms of functional testing and getting insurance coverage, and there are a few others that do, as well, which we’ll be talking about. I would just focus, as much as you can, on the labs that can be done and [are] covered by their insurance, and then really work with them intensively on their diet, lifestyle, and behavior. I think that can be incredibly successful. And then, you can stretch it out over time, so maybe you just start with the consult and no testing or with [a] blood panel that you can get covered by their insurance. And then, in six months or three months, if you’re running up against some blocks and you suspect they have some gut issues that are holding things back, you can test through Genova and try to get some insurance coverage for that, as well. There are lots of different ways to do this, for sure.