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Originally Posted by bny806
Hello, I am currently in Diagnostic limbo.. my initial MG panel came back negative, but now we are going to run a Musk panel, especially since I have the characteristic tongue of Musk+MG.. I have read on here that having Athena labs run the tests seems to be most sensitive, my neuromuscular dr said that he would gladly run it with that lab, however it may end up being very expensive (my insurance covers out of network labs, but not as much as in network of course). Does anyone have experience with Athena labs, their insurance not covereing it and having the MG or MUSK panel run with them- his nurse made it sound like it was going to be extremely expensive, but we really need answers and it would be nice to have more faith in the lab running the tests!!!
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Hi, I work in a hospital Lab so I am familiar with Athena in that it is a specialty laboratory. We stopped sending samples to them because of the billing issues. Yes, they are very expensive due to the proprietary nature of some of their tests.
Just to clarify... the vast majority of labs that your blood work is sent to will give you a quality result. All labs must undergo rigorous inspections and quality issues will shut down a lab faster than anything. You can be confident that even if your doctor does not send the test to Athena, you will get a quality result. I'm not sure if your doc is looking for a test that is ONLY done at Athena, but there are plenty of other labs that will provide comprehensive testing for MG. We use ARUP lab in Utah as a reference lab and they are very good, but others are excellent as well.
Good luck.