How It Begins
Did you receive a Cologuard test from Exact Sciences Laboratories that you didn’t order? More importantly, did you get one that your doctor or primary care physician didn’t order for you? If so, you’re not alone.
It may first start with a phone call with a number that you don’t recognize. So, you don’t answer the phone – with all the scams going around, this is commonly recommended phone practice nowadays . The caller then leaves a message indicating that your doctor has ordered a Cologuard that will be shipped to you.
When the package arrives during the next week, you might check with your doctor, who probably knows nothing about this order. This is what happened to my wife. Then I received the same phone message and expect to receive my kit
soon.
Who Is Receiving These Kits?
What’s going on? Apparently there are quite a few people this is happening to. Read about it at the Better Business Bureau website here.
Actually, the more important concern of many of these individuals is “How did they get my phone number and address? And who knows what other information about me they have? Who gave my information to them if my doctor didn’t?” There are definitely some privacy issues here
Note that I am not trying to disparage the value of the kit and any medical benefits from it. Nor do I want to be critical of any cancer screening methods. Just the way Exact Sciences Laboratories may be going about getting customers.
Why Are They Sending Them Out?
I seriously doubt it’s the same marketing plan razor companies had many years ago – give away the razors for free because you make the money selling people the blades. Actually, printer manufacturers do the same thing. They sell you a printer almost at cost because they know the money is in selling you ink over and over later on.
But an unsolicited colon cancer stool test is something that goes beyond just the individual receiving the product. And many people are upset with Exact Sciences as you’ll notice If you read the stories at the BBB website. Some of these folks had recent colonoscopies, which I’ve been told by my physician, are good for ten years.
According to ESL’s response to the BBB, “Currently, the test can only be ordered for individuals with a prescription from a physician.” Obviously, this is not the case. They also mention that nobody should be billed anything if the kit is not used. These tests are valued at about $600 and anyone thinking of using it had better see if it is covered by their insurance first.
Your Insurance May Not Cover Everything
it is very possible that – even if the test is covered – medical insurance may not cover for the follow up recommended colonoscopy should the test show positive (even a false positive). In other words, if a colonoscopy is done first for diagnostic purposes it may be covered. If a stool test is done first for diagnostic purposes, insurance may not cover for the colonoscopy afterwards. You need to check with your health care providers before doing any of these. Your providers might not even want to cover Cologuard.
What To Do First
So, if a Cologuard is shipped to you and you don’t know why or didn’t order it, what should you do? Well first of all, don’t use it without checking with your primary care doctor. My medical provider uses the OC-Plus system and that’s what my medical plan pays for – even though it may not be the best type of cancer screening out there.
The Difference Between Both Test Types
The OC-Plus system checks for blood in the stool in order to determine if further testing is needed. There is another very similar product called FIT.
As we all know there are no other ways to get blood in the digestive system besides having cancer – or is there? My new electric toothbrush warned that there could be gum bleeding when first used. Flossing or professional teeth cleaning causes blood. How about accidentally biting the tongue? Certain foods can falsely simulate this. There are no warning about these or any any other concerns on the test instructions. I’ve heard that this test is much less expensive than the Cologuard one – a reason why some health groups and insurances recommend them instead. Usually this test is recommended on a yearly basis.
Cologuard uses DNA to check for colon cancer and recommends doing at three year intervals. Of course, they get false positives or negatives from time to time also. Now, I’m not a doctor so I can’t tell you which is best for you. But that’s the point here – check with your physician before doing any testing – even for a colonoscopy (which could be considered as a third type of screening test). Don’t assume that just because a kit was shipped to you, that your physician wants you to use it. Ask first.
If You Don’t Use The Kit, Then What?
So what do you do with the kit if your doctor didn’t prescribe it?
You can send it back if you’d like to. Exact Sciences will handle the postage.
You don’t have to send it back though. According to the FTC if you receive something you haven’t ordered you can just keep it. You will not be charged for anything. Read about this FTC policy here.
Your Thoughts
Do you agree or disagree with any of my suggestions? Is there anything I’ve missed. Would you like to add a point for everyone? Please, comment below with your opinion.
This consumer story kind of deviates from my usual posts about posters. However, if an issue arises in my life that could potentially be a concern for many others, I feel the need to share it. This is especially true if it affects senior citizens like yours truly.
As long as you’re here, why not check out some of my featured posters. If one of them resonates with you, click on it and go to the Desert Square store on ETSY to purchase it.
Check this post out – It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they’ve been fooled
This author does not endorse, recommend, or recommend against using any of the products in this post and is not receiving any money or compensation from any company or organization mentioned. He also encourages everyone to follow their doctor’s recommendations.
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Ed Kenzer has a BS degree in Business Administration from California State University Northridge. He has been a Realtor, a mortgage banker, and for a trade was an ASE certified (and General Motors) master automobile technician. He is now a content creator with over seven decades of everyday experiences to share.
I got one. Didn’t ask for it as I already have a relationship with my doctor. Wrote nasty emails to Exact Sciences Labs and my health insurance company. What a waste of plastic.
Thank you for your very helpful post.
I got an email a couple of days ago, and another one today that it is on its way. Plus a phone call yesterday. How do they have this information? I am ticked off but feel infinitely better having read this post.
Hello everyone, today, Thursday, April 10, 2025, I received a mysterious, weird, white square box that weighs about 3lbs., which I never ordered, nor was expecting from any company/Scammer.
The mysterious box came from a sender that I never heard of called: Exact Sciences Laboratories, who’s return address is: 145 E. Badger Road, Madison, Wisconsin 53713.
I Googled the company and Google says that it’s a Colorectal Exam kit, well, I never ordered it, nor, did I receive a call from my primary care physician’s office that they ordered it for me, so, as far as I’m concerned, this mysterious box this is straight-up trash & a Scam.
It’s probably a Straight, Health Insurance type of Scam from the above company to have the recipient take the stool (Colon cancer) exam via their received kit & then they’ll bill my health insurance plan, though, my PCP (Primary Care Physician) didn’t order it for me, nor, is there verification that my health insurance plan will cover the alleged Colorectal Exam costs, Geez, this is a total, low life, waste of my time from the mentioned deceitful, possible Scammer company.
I will not be opening this mysterious box that I was not expecting, but received unexpectedly, however, I will be taking several photos of this weird box, so I can file an online complaint with the BBB (Better Business Bureau) & upload them the photos of the box and the company’s/Scammers address, so, hopefully, the BBB can continue to log in my complaint into their website, along with others complaints about the latter deceitful, Scammer company, so, Lord willing, some enforcement agency out there can hopefully investigate the latter mentioned company & give them a Big Time fine & immediately shut them down if necessary, if they find them guilty for deceitful practices & possibly for conspiracy to commit Health Insurance fraud against the public and against health insurance companies, so hopefully no one else experiences the mentioned, waste of time, idiotic nonsense from the mentioned deceitful, unethical, Scammer company.
Thanks for weighing in on the conversation. Note that I didn’t write the post to say there was anything wrong with the Cologuard product. Just wanted to mention that they have information on us that we don’t know how they got it and also they seem to have an unconventional method to market their test kit. E.K.
This happened to me exactly as you described. Phone call first, package in the mail etc.
I immediately began making phone calls and my insurance and doctor both stated they didn’t order that test for me. I recall about a year ago that Integris hospital, where I had my daughter, had a huge security breach. Putting all this together, I knew in my gut something wasn’t right. I’m glad I checked into it.
I hope no one falls for this scam.
I received texts from the cologuard people starting in early April and have received seven follow up texts since, all urging me to complete the test and send it back. I’m not going to do the test for several reasons.
First, all of their communications speak of “your health insurer” rather than naming my insurance company. That plus the fact that I have never heard a breath about this from my insurance company are red flags that just scream scammer.
Second, I asked my PCP if he prescribed this for me. He had no idea what I was talking about, but after a little checking, he discovered that some physician in Texas had “prescribed” cologuard for me. I do not know that particular doctor, and in fact I live over 1000 miles away in a mid Atlantic state. My physician said that I’m due for a colonoscopy next year anyway since it will have been 10 years since my last one, so I can just ignore cologuard, which suits me just fine.
Bottom line, if the cologuard people can’t be bothered to name my insurance company or the physician prescribing their test, they can try to extract $600 – $700 from someone else’s insurance company.
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Cologuard turns out to be a medically useful test; because it is a DNA test, it is better than just testing for blood in the stool which cannot differentiate between blood from growing cancers and blood from benign polyps. However, it is sleazy for Exact Sciences labs to send these to people whose personal clinicians have not discussed the test and ordered it for them. Apparently some health insurance companies have “partnered” with Cologuard to send tests to people whose records show they are due for colon cancer screening. But since colonoscopy is still the “gold standard” for screening (because you can visually identify lesions and sample them for definitive pathology testing), the proper way to go about this is for the clinician to offer the patient a colonoscopy and only switch to a test such as Cologuard if the patient declines colonoscopy or is not medically suitable for colonoscopy.