Jake Steiner

Found a tool worth sharing for anyone running their own panels. LabHackr (labhackr.com) catalogs every direct-to-consumer lab test in the US, then runs a matching algorithm to align identical Quest or LabCorp assays sold under different brand names across 52 retailers. Same lab. Same assay. Same LOINC code. Same printed result. The only thing that differs is what the retailer charges. The price spread is genuinely absurd. A Comprehensive Metabolic Panel at Jason Health is $8. The identical panel at LabCorp OnDemand is $60+. Same blood draw at the same patient service center. Same Quest or LabCorp lab running the analysis. Same LOINC code on the result. A typical Vitamin D test ranges from $35 to $311 across retailers for the same test. A bundled annual physical panel (CBC, CMP, Lipid, TSH, Vitamin D) ranges from $89 cheapest to $589 most expensive across the 21 retailers that carry it. Same five tests. 56x price range. How it works: You search the markers you want or pick from pre-built bundles. Their algorithm finds the single retailer that carries everything cheapest, including the requisition fee. You click through, pay direct, get drawn at any Quest or LabCorp patient service center near you, and have results in 1 to 3 days. No insurance. No referral. No markup. Why this matters: The case for running your own panels gets stronger every year. Most insurance won’t cover ApoB or Lp(a) without a specific diagnosis code. Most physicians won’t order fasting insulin, hsCRP, homocysteine, or omega-3 index in routine care. The data you actually need to track metabolic, cardiovascular, and longevity health upstream is largely DTC territory now. When you can run a basic metabolic and lipid panel for under $30 cash, the economics flip. Quarterly comprehensive testing becomes accessible for the price of a couple coffees a week. You stop arguing with your physician about coverage and start arriving with the data already in hand. What I’d recommend you build a quarterly basket around: CBC, CMP, fasting insulin, HbA1c, full lipid panel, ApoB, Lp(a) (one time only, it’s genetic and stable), hsCRP, homocysteine, vitamin D, ferritin with iron studies, full thyroid (TSH, Free T4, Free T3), and basic hormones (testosterone with SHBG for men, estradiol and progesterone for women). That’s the comprehensive metabolic and cardiovascular foundation that lets you trend your own physiology over time. Built quarterly, that data becomes a longitudinal record nothing else in healthcare can match. Two honest disclosures from their site that I appreciate: they’re transparent that affiliate revenue covers server costs first, and anything beyond that goes to Partners In Health, who bring the same diagnostics to people in Haiti, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Peru, and Malawi who have never seen a lab panel. They also flag that as of now they haven’t crossed server cost so nothing has been donated yet. When it does they’ll post receipts. That’s the right way to run a transparent affiliate model. Not sponsored. I make zero income from anything I post. Just sharing tools that actually serve patients trying to take control of their own data. Quarterly testing was already the brand thesis here. LabHackr just made the math friendlier for the people doing it. Don’t wait for the diagnosis. Read the label.