Las Vegas lab, cosmetic physician offer VIP-style COVID-19 testing

A Las Vegas laboratory and a physician who specializes in cosmetic procedures are collaborating to offer VIP-style COVID-19 testing.

American Specialty Lab and Dr. Garry Lee started offering testing about a week ago and so far have tested a handful of people.

The independent lab on West Charleston Boulevard said it had about 2,000 nasal swab test kits on hand as of Thursday.

Lee, a local physician whose medical practices are the VIP Medical Clinic &Wellness Center and a Henderson medical spa called Look Younger MD, said the “VIP-type service” will fill a gap for people who have symptoms of the new coronavirus but don’t have a doctor or health insurance. He said it will also ease the strain on sites that are providing free testing.

Lee, whose Look Younger MD medical spa is closed due to Gov. Steve Sisolak’s order closing nonessential businesses, said the testing for COVID-19 is free, but patients pay $69.50 for a telemedicine consultation and $69.50 for the lab triage and sample collection. Patients have to pay out of pocket, and health insurance isn’t billed, he said.

Lee likened the offering to the Transportation Security Administration’s PreCheck, where people pay “a couple of extra dollars so they don’t have to wait in line as long.”

American Specialty Lab collects samples and then sends them to the Clinical Pathology Laboratories for testing. “We just do the collection,” lab manager Michele Iafrate explained.

Patients must be exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms in order to be tested, Lee said, since there’s a nationwide shortage of test kits. “A lot of people have been calling us, but they don’t meet the criteria.”

Other requirements include a fever over 99.5 degrees, coughing and shortness of breath.

There’s a “bit of an exception” to those guidelines for first responders, he said.

Customers fill out an online form and, if they meet the criteria for COVID-19 testing, are scheduled for a telemedicine consultation. If they are accepted for testing, they call the lab to schedule a 10-minute appointment for testing — usually either the same or next day.

Patients must demonstrate they have a fever by using a thermometer at home during the appointment or be checked when they arrive at the lab, Lee said.

Test results have usually been coming in within three days, but the companies say they can’t make any guarantees. Lee said he calls patients with results and sends notification of any positive tests to the Southern Nevada Health District.

Other groups offering COVID-19 testing in the Las Vegas Valley have recently run afoul of state authorities, including a drive-thru testing service offered by Sahara West Urgent Care &Wellness that was closed early this week after the state Department of Health and Human Services received a complaint about the operation.

Another drive-thru operation offered by Cura Telehealth also closed its coronavirus antibody testing service on the first day it was offered after the licensed nurse practitioner overseeing the operation quit.

Lee and lab officials said they discussed the new service with a Southern Nevada Health District official and received an OK to proceed. But in response to a Review-Journal inquiry, SNHD spokeswoman Jennifer Sizemore said: “We do not license these facilities.”

A spokeswoman for the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services, which regulates laboratories, said American Specialty Lab is a licensed lab and has submitted an application to the state in order to be able to test for COVID-19.

The application status is pending, and the state has been in contact with the lab, spokeswoman Shannon Litz wrote Friday in an email.

The lab is collecting specimens in its parking lot, Litz said. “The laboratory is not performing any testing for COVID-19 but instead sending the specimens they are collecting to another laboratory for testing.”

Other COVID-19 testing sites in Las Vegas include the UNLV School of Medicine, which is offering curbside nasal swab testing to patients by appointment at no cost. Southwest Medical also offers curbside testing, but only for its own patients who have a doctor’s order.

Contact Julie Wootton-Greener at jgreener@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2921. Follow @julieswootton on Twitter.