🏥 My mother's blood tests cost 4 times more at the hospital lab than at the lab near our house

In June my mother had her yearly check up at a big private hospital in Hyderabad. I followed on the phone from Riyadh. Lipid profile, CBC, sugar, thyroid. Same tests she gets every year. My sister took her to the hospital's own lab because that's where the nurse sent them. The bill for just those tests came to a little over ₹4,000, and my sister called me straight away. Last year she did almost the same tests at a small lab near our house in Mehdipatnam. About ₹900. I asked my sister to send photos of both bills. Test list almost identical. Hospital bill also had a sample collection charge and a processing fee. Never seen those at the small lab. She asked at the counter. These are standard charges. That's all they said. In an emergency I'd pay whatever and not think twice. You need the result in the same building. But this was a planned visit. Routine. And nobody told my mother she could get the tests done outside. Found out later you can use any accredited lab for routine tests and take the reports to the doctor. Also that you can ask for the price list before they take the sample. I had no idea about either. Now my sister asks the rate before every test and compares with the lab near home first. For her last check up, same tests outside, under ₹1,000. The doctor didn't say a word about it. My mother still thinks the hospital lab is "more accurate." Can't convince her otherwise. Has your doctor ever made a fuss about reports from an outside lab?

Four times the price for the same panel is not unusual at hospital labs. My father's yearly checkup at a corporate hospital cost 3,900 rupees, and the same tests at a standalone lab near Kukatpally cost 1,100 rupees, with an NABL certificate on the report.

The same thing happened with my family at a diagnostic center, they quoted double the rate for a basic CBC test and there was no breakdown in the bill either, I only got a small discount after comparing the rate from another place and questioning it, but this shouldn't be normal. Now every time before getting any test done, I check the rate at two or three places first, it takes a bit of time but saves quite a bit of money.