It's a well-known fact that though most adult movies are shot in the Los Angeles area, the performers who appear in them sometimes live as far away as New York, New Jersey, Florida and plenty of places in between, and only visit L.A. when they've been hired for a movie. But thanks to a new APHSS-approved testing service which offers physician-ordered blood draws at almost 2,000 locations across the country, with results emailed as soon as they're received, performers can show up on set ready to work without having to plan for an extra day in town just for testing.
"STDStatus.com is geared toward the performer industry, and we are certified by the APHSS; we are an authorized provider to the APHSS and the Free Speech Coalition; we are partners with both," said STDStatus.com owner Fiyyaz Pirani. "We have a special panel that our physicians put together for performers. If you click on 'tests and prices,' that is a panel of tests that you see there, that is specifically designed for performers, and our physicians have created that, and that's the panel that's approved by the APHSS and the Free Speech Coalition for testing, to clear people for work through these tests. Now, this test includes the special HIV-RNA test that is very sensitive to early exposure, and it will actually display results [if HIV-positive] about nine days post-exposure, so where normal tests take 30 days, this test, the RNA test, is designed to be much more effective. That performer panel is available for just $149."
That panel consists of the government- and APHSS-approved Aptima HIV by RNA test, as well as tests for gonorrhea, syphilis and chlamydia, though for an additional fee, performers can add tests for herpes and all three forms of hepatitis by going to one of the company's other sites, STDCheck.com.
"The completed-results report, once a HIPAA release is signed, it gives us permission to send the full report via email in .pdf format," Pirani explained, "and if the performer wants, at that point, he or she can release it to her production company or the APHSS site, but we are fully compliant with HIPAA privacy laws where whoever's being tested is the only one that will receive it, unless they specifically sign a waiver or release to have the results released to someone else."
But that's not all: The company offers a platform on STDStatus where a producer or studio can sign up and create an account and have, for example, contract performers' tests billed directly to the producer/studio.
Though a fairly new service—STDStatus.com has only been in business for about six months—its parent company, STDAlert.com, has been around for two years, so its business model has been thoroughly tested, and its long associations with both Labcorp and Quest Diagnostics have proved invaluable in making sure that wherever you live in the U.S., they can find a doctor to draw blood nearby.
"We have a 24-hour phone service, and we have live chat available as well," Pirani said, "so there's a lot of visibility for the patient; they're able to speak to one of our doctors if they feel they need to, but the service really is designed to be streamlined and seamless. It's supposed to be quick, so the performers can focus on performing and work. We're just there to make sure they're in compliance and everything is done safely."
So whether one wants to use STDStatus.com for performer testing, or STDCheck.com which is optimized for the general public, it's a one-stop shop for all of your STD-testing needs.
