it's quest that does that test, and it is $156 (cash price, at least in this area).  i am having my pediatrician write the script (it is code 91681) and then going to the lab to have it done.

Am wondering about uKnow and insurance coverage, especially now with Affordable Care Act . . .

I have heard conflicting reports as to Tricare coverage.  Seems to be region dependent, though it should NOT be.

Our current allergist (part of a big national group now) has contracted with a certain lab . . . we have to come pick up kit . . . cannot recall where blood draw will be done . . . and then away it goes for testing.

Just need to get bleeping Tricare ("Try and care") to cover for sure.

And we have to make app't with doc's office to do this . . . for each kid.

It's either LabCorp or Quest.  I cannot remember for the life of me which but it is of course, the one my insurance won't associate with.  Grr.

It's on my Christmas wishlist - pay full price to get just a bit of sanity.

they drew blood at the office.  I assume they sent it to uknow

Our doctor's office did it. It's quite a large office and they alwaysbtobthe blood draws themselves.

We went to a lab to have the blood drawn but the samples were fed-exed directly to the uknow people (phadia?)

When I asked my doc about this test last year, she said there currently wasn't a lab that she would trust to do it. Where did all of yours go?

We've been holding out on this test in hopes we can verify that insurance will cover . . . just don't have that amount of cash for 2 kids currently.

If we had to choose which kid to test, it would be DD who has the high birch numbers, no ana to pnut experience, and moderate test numbers to pnut as well as SPT is very low too for pnut.  She is also OAS to cherries, peaches, apricots, nectarines . . .

Though I don't see us bringing ANY pnut anything into our home with DS and his ana reax history and contact reax history . . . at least until we've also done the uKnow for him and received GOOD answer (not holding my breath on that one).

I read this thread and I'm struck by how FAR we've really come in some aspects in the last 15 years.

Just need a billion $ poured into research and we'll have more answers.    

I think that more insurance is covering it.  I didn't have to order the kit or anything.  they did the blood draw in the dr office and sent it out.  billed insurance which is aetna
thanks for that info, macabre

Ours wasn't (and I've heard similar reports from others), but for some reason we didn't have to pay.

I'm going to hunt down the text DH sent me when he was at the alleegist with DS.

"We do the first drops today. Will do skin testing, blood testing. Component testing isn't covered by insurance. There's a $150 peanut only test but also a $195 ImmunoCAP ISAC test that covers airbornes and peanut which, if positive, means teh peanut comoenent test gets thrown in free. We're doing the ISAC."

Ds is really allergic to birch too. Is that test covered by insurance?

Excellent. Maybe I can take this in to current doc to come back to the topic of the test. Or maybe I'll just email previous doc to see what exactly the "new" RAST done on DS1 at Sinai was.

Timely article!  It's older, but for some reason this was in my google alerts today. We tweeted this today (I don't this was cited upstream):

http://www.jaci-inpractice.org/article/S2213-2198(12)00019-0/fulltext#sec4

Advances in Diagnosing Peanut Allergy
Scott H. Sicherer, MD, Robert A. Wood, MD

Received 11 September 2012; received in revised form 8 October 2012; accepted 12 October 2012.



Component testing
Peanut, like any food, is composed of many proteins (Table III). An immune response directed toward one or another protein (component of peanut) may have different implications, depending on characteristics of the protein.44, 45, 46, 47, 48 Ara h 1, 2, and 3 are seed storage proteins, are stable to heating, and are considered the major peanut allergens associated with primary sensitization to peanut. Ara H 4 is an isoform of Ara h 3 and Ara h 6 is homologous to Ara h 2. Ara h 5 is a profilin, a plant pan-allergen, and Ara h 8 is a Bet v 1 (birch pollen) homologue, both of which are labile proteins, which are not usually associated with severe PNA. Ara h 9 is a lipid transfer protein that is stable and has been associated with more severe symptoms as well as oral ones, among patients in Mediterranean regions, and may be related to primary sensitization to the major peach allergen Pru p 3 or possibly other fruits.44, 45, 49, 50"

(There is more about component testing in the article.)

Oh wow.