A new company formed by a medical front liner who has been conducting tests practically since the pandemic wreaked havoc in California offers COVID-19 testing to nearly anyone all-week and 24/7 with fast results and NO LONG WAITS!
Such is the claim by Maestro Medical Testing’s owner and Intensive Care Unit nurse, Andrea Mcauliff. The company also prides itself with providing both polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing, the so-called gold standard test, and rapid antigen testing.
Before Maestro, Macauliff worked on a COVID STRIKE TEAM of San Mateo County. During March 2020 they built a swab team that went out to test the congregate care facilities in most of San Mateo. “Several residential care facilities for elderly (RCFEs) and assisted living facilities (ALFs) reached out asking for help and for resources (for testing), and I did not know what to say to help them… until about 2 weeks later when I decided I would try to start a company so we could keep testing,” In other words, Maestro was started to specialize in emergency testing for outbreak prevention and to provide rotation schedule testing 24/7 while operating in full compliance with state and county testing standards.
“We come to you no matter where you need the testing or what time you need the tests. Maestro is fully mobile so we arrive as soon as possible removing your risks of exposure and hassles with transport. We do all the paperwork and handle all the billing as well. Once we test, your samples are double/triple checked and brought to FedEx where they are sent over night to the lab,” she added.
Maestro says their procedure is an easier non-invasive test. They use a laboratory machine that is so specific that their mid nasal or anterior nares swab using a bigger Q-tip only touches the front or middle part of the nose. This is procedure does not draw a sample from far back of the nose anymore and no one should view the new test procedure as painful.
Maestro PCR tests are taken to either Molecular Labs in Washington or Warrior Labs in Colorado. Both labs are CLIA approved and report test results to CALREDIE with a 24-72 hour (1-3 days) turnaround from the time the lab received the samples.
Because the COVID-19 emergency is requiring a lot of testing – both employees and residents – you’ll want to understand the expenses involved. Each test, whether PCR or antigen, costs $15 for Maestro to administer. All PCR tests are billable to insurance companies which are, in turn, required to reimburse the lab that runs the test. If the person is covered by insurance the lab cost of $105 will be paid. Those without out insurance will pay the lab costs. The rapid antigen total test kit cost is $90 on top of the cost to administer. However, these tests are not covered by insurance.
The Maestro Rapid Antigen testing, is indeed ‘rapid.’ It takes only about 20 min to get results! This test is most useful for symptomatic individuals (those who have symptoms) so it can quickly determine if they are Covid-positive for immediate isolation. On the other hand, antigen testing is not the type of test recommended for surveillance testing.
Maestro’s Medical Testing is often used by other groups and events where their speciality mobile testing is highly desirable. Frequent customers include: film/TV productions before shoots so that the cast and crew can go to work safely; weddings; parties, etc. Maestro also tests businesses with employees that are re-joining the move to work from their offices again.
Mcauliff hopes to make the side of Maestro that tests congregate living facilities into a non-profit organization in the next 30-60 days. This would allow Maestro to pair with other non-profits in accessing some government resources to provide less expensive, or possibly free, testing to those that desperately need it and cannot afford it. They would keep the TV/film testing side as the for-profit Maestro entity that would donate funds to the non-profit to help pay for more tests.