Blue Horizon 'Lifetime Members Club'

[jimh111]

Just received an e-mail with details of Blue Horizon 'Lifetime Members Club' with VIP20, VIP30, VIP40 & VIP50 at a cost of £400, £1,000, £2,000 and £4,000 respectively. The last two are limited to jsut a few 'members'!

My personal view is that we should be wary of these offers. Blue Horizon often have discount offers. There is no guarantee that they will not increase their prices in the future with offers being standard practice.

Whilst I find their service easy and efficient we should bear in mind that they currently charge patients £109.15 for an assay of TSH, fT3, fT4 (+ antibodies) whereas they charge NW London hospitals £2-74 for a TSH, fT3, fT4 assay.

It may be better to avoid membership schemes so that you are free to seek out best value.

[Hidden]

How do you know what they charge hospitals?

[jimh111 in reply to Hidden]

I submitted a freedom of information request to my local healthcare trust ibshypo.com/index.php/cost-... .

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

Whilst I find their service easy and efficient we should bear in mind that they currently charge patients £109.15 for an assay of TSH, fT3, fT4 (+ antibodies)

Where do you get that price from? Fingerprick version is £69 normal price:

bluehorizonbloodtests.co.uk...

[jimh111 in reply to SeasideSusie]

I should have mentioned this is the price for venipuncture where you go to their clinic in London and they take the blood. I prefer this because I can't be bothered to do the finger prick test and their clinic is handy for me and near to a very nice patteserie.

[Hidden in reply to jimh111]

Where is the clinic? And how much do they charge for blood tests?

[jimh111 in reply to Hidden]

Details are here bloodtestslondon.com/ . They are part of the Blue Horizons group. These tests are more expensive than the finger prick tests, I prefer this option and can afford it. Since it is the same lab as used by my local GP surgeries and hospitals the doctors can’t diss it. In fact then tend to perk up and say ‘that’s the same lab as we use’.

If anyone is told their Blue Horizon blood test isn’t accepted by their doctor they could always point out it’s done by the lab that most hospitals in SE England use.

[Hidden in reply to jimh111]

Thanks, but the disparity is enormous, a couple of quid vs over a hundred?

In a historic post you mentioned having suppressed TSH, was that after thyroid medication?

I have very low TSH and Endo's don't understand what's going on so I've not been diagnosed with anything.

[jimh111 in reply to Hidden]

These companies charge what they can get away with. I could understand it costing £20 or £30 to allow for running the clinic, taking the blood etc. but they exploit patients. The prices have been drifting up. I suspect they will change to a model whereby the recommended price is raised and 'special offers' become more common. Not very ethical behaviour for healthcare.

My TSH went very low because I needed high doses of thyroid hormone. Once I sorted that out my TSH stayed low because my 'axis' was down-regulated. The hypothalamic pituitary thyroid axis (basicially how much TSH you produce for given fT3, fT4 levels) can become down-regulated if there is a sustained period of hyperthyroidism, depression, severe illness or very low calorie diet. I call this 'subnormal TSH secretion' to distinguish it from central hypothyroidsm which is more severe and usually accompanied with other hormone deficiencies and damage to the pituitary.

I believe subnormal TSH secretion has unexpected consequences because it reduces conversion of T4 to T3 especially in the brain. I will be adding a section on fibromyalgia to my website this summer showing the links between hypothyroidism, fibromyalgia and IBS. In your case I would recommend you get your TSH, fT3 and fT4 measured to see if TSH, fT3 and fT4 are all low normal which would suggest subnormal TSH secretion.

[Treepie in reply to jimh111]

Too some extent there must be a batching and quantity discount but even so a hell of a difference.

[Hidden in reply to jimh111]

The free market doesn't recognise ethics, only unfettered greed.

Wow, thanks so much for the info. I resented how the Endo's shook their heads but didn't bother engaging their brains to investigate my below range TSH. I have fibromyalgia and brain fog is a persistent symptom.

I will aim to get the relevant tests on the NHS, as we are ALL entitled to. Though my first step is to focus on what diet/supplements I can take to improve my health. Principally I want to limit my interaction with any medical professional.

As an aside virtually every doctor has sensed a thyroid issue with me, and ordered a thyroid tests. Unfortunately, they're incomplete so they write it off and use the catch all of FM instead.

[SilverAvocado in reply to Hidden]

Fibro foggy, unfortunately getting all the relevant tests on the NHS is vanishingly unlikely, you will be banging hour head against a brick wall.

It is possible to get TSH and freeT4 together if you have a good doctor, but freeT3 is probably not in a GP's power to get for you.

Especially if you have been categorized as unlikely to have a thyroid condition from an I initial screening test

Treatment and investigation of this illness is very cruel and extremely negligent.

[Wetsuiter]

Makes sense for them to tie us in for lifetime.

from their point of view i mean

[helvella in reply to Wetsuiter]

I don't even sign an annual agreement for my mobile phone!

[Wetsuiter in reply to helvella]

me neither. never needed to with free wifi everywhere

[LAHs in reply to helvella]

Neither do I! I use a pay as you go, when the minutes run out I send 'em $50, that lasts me a little less than a year.

[jimh111 in reply to LAHs]

I top up with £10 very occasionally and set a reminder to use my mobile once every six months so that the number doesn't expire. I use WiFi, but a coffee and get free WiFi. I've never been offered free unlimited coffee with any mobile telephone contract.

[SilverAvocado in reply to Wetsuiter]

I'm pretty shocked by the prices, too! In the email they mention some of their customers are regular high users. I assumed I would be included in that category as I buy a thyroid panel every 6 weeks, vitamins once a year, and a handful of other things throughout the year.

With a back of the envelope super rough calculation it would take me about 5 years to break even on cheapest scheme, and 8-10 years to break even on the 50% discount scheme! That's before I even see any discounts!

I'm not too happy to gamble that Blue Horizon will still exist in that many years, and maybe not even that I will My hope would be that I'll be a lot less sick by then and won't be taking such regular blood tests!

[Treepie]

I had same email . Looks enticing but who is to say that they will be around for years ,get taken over or closed down etc.