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How doctors are getting rich on urine tests for opioid patients

Spending on urine screens and related genetic tests quadrupled from 2011 to 2014 to an estimated $8.5 billion a year more than the entire budget of the Environmental Protection Agency.

By Fred Schulte and Elizabeth Lucas from Kaiser Health News | Updated on November 08, 2017
The federal government paid providers more to conduct urine drug tests in 2014 than it spent on the four most recommended cancer screenings combined. (Photo: Shutterstock)

The cups of urine travel by express mail to the Comprehensive Pain Specialists lab in an industrial park in Brentwood, Tenn., not far from Nashville. Most days bring more than 700 of the little sealed cups from clinics across 10 states, wrapped in red-tagged waste bags. The network treats about 48,000 people each month, and many will be tested for drugs.

Gloved lab techs keep busy inside the cavernous facility, piping smaller urine samples into tubes. First there are tests to detect opiates that patients have been prescribed by CPS doctors. A second set identifies a wide range of drugs, both legal and illegal, in the urine. The doctors’ orders are displayed on computer screens and tracked by electronic medical records. Test results go back to the clinics in four to five days. The urine ends up stored for a month inside a massive walk-in refrigerator.

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