D.C. Clinic Offers Antibody Coronavirus Test With Results In Minutes — For A Price

toggle caption Alex Lourie/WAMU

A 27-year-old named Jessica wanted to find out whether the fever, shortness of breath and fatigue she had in mid-March were symptoms of COVID-19. Her urgent care clinic didn't have coronavirus tests available, but she paid $290 Wednesday at Farragut Medical and Travel Care in downtown D.C. to learn if her blood had antibodies that might show she had fought off the disease.

"It will definitely make him less stressed," she said, pointing to her boyfriend. If she tested positive, perhaps both of them could assume they had immunity.

She is among some 200 people who have visited the clinic in recent weeks to get tested. Dr. Ida Bergstrom said her office ordinarily provides primary care, urgent care and travel vaccines. In the past month, Bergstrom began testing for COVID-19. In addition to the antibody test, Bergstrom also offers a nasal swab test that shows if someone is currently infected with the coronavirus. Combined with a doctor's visit, the nasal swab costs $425.

At a time when public health departments and hospitals are struggling to obtain the tests, swabs and protective equipment vital to large-scale testing, Bergstrom quietly tests a trickle of patients who can afford it.

To get the nasal swab test, known as a PCR test, Bergstrom said that last month she contacted the laboratories that process her other, more routine tests, and requested kits for COVID-19. They sent back a handful.

"I'm doing as many as my lab gives us, which is maybe three or four," she said. "Every time we use three or four, we get three or four."

toggle caption Alex Lourie/WAMU

Many private doctors who conduct this test limit it to existing patients; Dr. Bergstrom does not take insurance and she accepts any patient. Other doctors order the test, but send their patients to take it at public testing sites. These sites follow the criteria set by D.C. Health, which are similar to those across the region. Among their top priorities are hospitalized patients and health facility workers with COVID-19 symptoms; symptomatic patients in long-term care facilities; symptomatic patients older than 65 or with underlying conditions; and critical infrastructure workers with symptoms.

Bergstrom said she uses her discretion in deciding who she tests, although she says her criteria include having symptoms or being exposed.

"It's not ideal for any person to get. It's very expensive," she said.

She named as possible scenarios a patient who was exposed to the virus because their entire household was infected, or a person who needs to care for elderly parents and wants to know if they're an asymptomatic carrier.

She said her prices reflect the cost of testing materials and running a practice, but she acknowledged the pricetag leaves many people out.

"The type of testing that needs to be done in our country is on the order of millions, daily," she said.

Dr. Neal Barnard, who sits on the board of directors for the Medical Society of the District of Columbia, said few doctors in the city offer a service like Bergstrom's.

"She may not be unique, but she's part of a very small group," he said.

Although the demand has exceeded supply for coronavirus tests, Barnard said the landscape is changing. The Food and Drug Administration just cleared a test that uses saliva, which would be easier to administer. The current test requires a doctor to insert a swab deep up a patient's nose.

"The availability of the tests is changing day by day," he said. "It will make more doctors willing to do it."

The antibody test that Bergstrom offers is sold by Aytu BioScience in Englewood, Colo. It is part of a class of experimental tools that came to market without approval from the FDA, but with its permission under an emergency COVID-19 protocol.

Dr. Hana Akselrod, an infectious disease expert at George Washington University, said that antibody tests play a vital role in understanding how a virus moves in a population, but cautioned that individual results might not be completely reliable.

Moreover, she added, the coronavirus is new and scientists are still studying whether getting infected protects you from getting it again.

"I would want to know to what extent a positive antibody actually translates into real immunity," she wrote WAMU.

Jessica, the patient who bought an antibody test, said she holds a Ph.D. in economics and read closely about the caveats of current tests. She decided to take the test anyway to satisfy her curiosity about what made her so sick. As a bonus, she said she found out after the test that her Blue Cross Blue Shield health insurance covered it.

Her results came back a few minutes after she had her finger pricked – negative. Still, she said, it was worth it.