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Hi, I would like to know where can I buy a blood thinner tester and how much would it cost me. I need this so that I can monitor my blood at home. I had my artificial heart valve last 2007 I would like to buy one because I don't have any health insurance.
There are some labs that will let you order an INR test online for a discount. You do the order online, you pay online, and then you take your order number and go to a local lab to have the blood drawn. I found an INR test for $36, within a minute or so of searching. I used the search terms "online lab test."
It depends on the country you live in. In the US, the retail price of an INR monitor is quite expensive -- probably at least $1200 or so, and the test strips cost around $5 or $6 apiece. Actually, I would be surprised if you could get a Coaguchek, InRatio, or Protime monitor from a factory-authorized retailer in the US for as little as $1200, and it might be more like twice that.
In the US, the authorized sellers require a prescription from your doctor, plus a lot of other paperwork to be filled out, and they don't like to just sell you a monitor. They want to sell you their "system" of leasing the monitor to you and calling in your results to your doctor. If they sell only a monitor to you, they will make sure they charge you enough for it to make up for what they think they "lost" on their "service."
In other countries, such as Canada and Australia, the monitors are much more reasonable -- more like about about $500 to $600 for a new monitor. You get a prescription from your doctor, and you take that to a drugstore that stocks the devices.
There is a "gray market" for monitors and stips in the US, in which you can get a new or used monitor for anywhere from about $350 to about $1000, and strips go for anywhere from about $3 up. No prescription is required, because you are buying outside the authorized system. You have no warranty and no support, and it's not really legal, either.
If you only need to test once a month, you are probably better off just paying a lab each time. If you need to test more often, you might come out ahead by buying your own monitor. Ultimately, the cost/benefit ratio depends in part on how long the monitor lasts, and you have no way to predict that. Sometimes they last several years, and sometimes they last only a short time.
If you buy a monitor from anybody but an authorized dealer, and it goes kaput before the nominal one-year warranty is up, you are out of luck. The factor will not honor the warranty if you buy it outside of the authorized network. If you buy one from an authorized dealer, and it goes kaput one day after the warranty expires, you are also out of luck, because the warranty expired, and the company has no obligation to you.
In the US, the authorized sellers require a prescription from your doctor, plus a lot of other paperwork to be filled out, and they don't like to just sell you a monitor. They want to sell you their "system" of leasing the monitor to you and calling in your results to your doctor. If they sell only a monitor to you, they will make sure they charge you enough for it to make up for what they think they "lost" on their "service."
In other countries, such as Canada and Australia, the monitors are much more reasonable -- more like about about $500 to $600 for a new monitor. You get a prescription from your doctor, and you take that to a drugstore that stocks the devices.
There is a "gray market" for monitors and stips in the US, in which you can get a new or used monitor for anywhere from about $350 to about $1000, and strips go for anywhere from about $3 up. No prescription is required, because you are buying outside the authorized system. You have no warranty and no support, and it's not really legal, either.
If you only need to test once a month, you are probably better off just paying a lab each time. If you need to test more often, you might come out ahead by buying your own monitor. Ultimately, the cost/benefit ratio depends in part on how long the monitor lasts, and you have no way to predict that. Sometimes they last several years, and sometimes they last only a short time.
If you buy a monitor from anybody but an authorized dealer, and it goes kaput before the nominal one-year warranty is up, you are out of luck. The factor will not honor the warranty if you buy it outside of the authorized network. If you buy one from an authorized dealer, and it goes kaput one day after the warranty expires, you are also out of luck, because the warranty expired, and the company has no obligation to you.
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