# taking blood in-home to get life insurance, safe?



## star thistle (Jul 11, 2007)

My husband and I are in the process of getting life insurance. The company that the broker has set us up with sends out a health care professional (nurse?) to our home to draw blood, take vitals, give urinalysis, etc. I have refused to give blood outside of a lab, but my DH is gung-ho to get it done as we have been dragging our feet for a year about it. So he is going through with it and is not nearly as paranoid as I am. All the companies we have looked into have required blood work before acceptance and it seems there is no way around it. Although admittedly, my DH has not put up much of a fight.

What I am concerned with is the safety and accuracy of in-home testing. Does anyone have experience with this? Is it normal? What safety measures should I look out for when this nurse comes to our home?

TIA


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## GoldmanBaby09 (Apr 7, 2009)

I was a life insurance agent, and that is very normal. The person they send is trained to take all those samples, and they don't test it in your home, they just collect it. It all gets sent back to a lab for testing. Most companies offer this as a convenience to their customers, so that they don't have to go anywhere to get it done. All companies are going to require a blood draw based on the amount of insurance you are purchasing. I would check with your insurance agent and see if there is a local lab office you can go to if it makes you uncomfortable. But, I can assure you this is a standard practice


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## maddycakes (Apr 14, 2008)

We had to do that it and it was no biggie. She washed her hands, wore the rubber gloves, cleaned the injection site, used sterile tubes to put the blood in, etc. Just what you'd expect at the doctor's office. Then directly into a special envelope for mailing to the lab, which she did after she left our house.

The bonus for me was that she took 10lbs off my weight reading when I told her I was breastfeeding (I was only about 8 weeks post-baby so clearly it wasn't really a fair time to weigh me anyway!). It made a difference in the premium I had to pay


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## bajamergrrl (Nov 24, 2008)

I've drawn blood outside of laboratory settings and it's perfectly fine. The biggest worry is usually finding a stable surface to do it on but there are inventive ways of dealing with that. As long as the professional washes/cleans their hands, wears gloves, uses sterile needles, cleans the puncture site before drawing the blood and labels tubes correctly you should be fine.


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## DahliaRW (Apr 16, 2005)

As long as their wear gloves, use sterile needles, etc, it is perfectly safe. My mw draws blood in her office (which is not a lab). I have no issues with that. They just seal it and send it to the lab when it's done outside of it. In fact, I'd worry less about nasty germs in my house then I would a lab where they send lots of sick people to get blood drawn.


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## Amila (Apr 4, 2006)

Thats pretty standard with life insurance- we did it, no biggie.


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## cristeen (Jan 20, 2007)

Why would you refuse it? What are you afraid of?

The person they sent to our house both times was a trained nurse's asst, I believe. She dealt really well with my rolling veins, which even a lot of the phlebotomists at Kaiser don't manage. It's just like with any other lab - the person is just there to draw your blood and they send it off to another dept to do the testing.

The entire kit she had (one for each of us) was new and unopened - the needles were sterile and unopened, she wore gloves, what else is there to be concerned with?


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## star thistle (Jul 11, 2007)

Thanks everybody for responding. Knowing it is a fairly common practice eases my mind.


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## dnr3301 (Jul 4, 2003)

yeah, that's pretty standard. I was nervous about it too, but it was no biggie. And once I found out that they almost always do it that way, it wasn't as big of a deal for me.


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## Peony (Nov 27, 2003)

We've done it before and the company then contracted to local RN's to do the blood draws. I ended up knowing the nurse that came out.


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## Drummer's Wife (Jun 5, 2005)

we did it too for our life insurance policies. I actually think in a way it's safer at home rather than going into a lab with who knows what kind of germs around, ya know?

When I had to go in for blood draws after an illness the lab waiting room was always full of people with a variety of sicknesses (or recovering, but still). Never saw the lab tech wipe down the chair and arm rest thing.


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## indie (Jun 16, 2003)

When I had mine done the nurse was afraid to do a draw on my tiny veins so she called another nurse and had him do it. There were no problems and everything they used was sterile right out of the package.


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