For practices and practitioners
Working with Epicentre as a wholesale lab partner
Offer your patients research-grade testing at a price they can actually sustain. Epicentre is a South African diagnostic lab, founded in 2001, that supplies pathology and functional testing wholesale to private practices, functional medicine, longevity and wellness clinics in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban.
Practitioners open an account, order the tests their patients need, and pay a wholesale rate for the month's usage. Your practice sets the patient price, and results come straight back to you.
Not a practitioner? You can still walk in and test directly, with no doctor's referral needed. Jump to patient info.
Medically reviewed by Dr. Samantha Naidoo, MB ChB, FCP (SA)
In short: you open an account, order the tests your patients need, and pay a wholesale rate for the month. Your practice sets the patient price, and results come straight back to you. Available to practices in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban, with results in 2 to 5 days for bloods and 5 to 7 days for PCR panels.
Why is proactive testing so expensive for patients?
Functional and preventative medicine runs on data. A thorough first consult can call for a broad panel: thyroid, iron studies, a lipogram, reproductive hormones and vitamin status. Ordered one test at a time at retail pathology rates, that panel adds up quickly, and the cost lands on the patient.
Many people start a proactive programme, see the first invoice, and quietly stop. The testing that would have caught a problem early never happens. The barrier is rarely the clinical need. It is the price of getting the blood work done, and a wholesale relationship is the most direct way to move that price.
What is a wholesale lab partnership?
It is different from simply sending a patient to a lab. When you refer a patient to a retail pathology lab, they pay that lab's list price and you have no control over it. A wholesale partnership puts you in the middle: you hold an account with Epicentre, you order the tests, and you pay a wholesale rate.
Retail referral
- The lab sets the price
- No billing flexibility for your practice
- Tests ordered and paid for one at a time
Epicentre wholesale
- You pay a wholesale rate and set the patient price
- Bill at cost, bundle a panel, or include bloods in a membership
- One monthly settlement across all your patients
A growing number of practices approached us this year with the same first question: can you supply us wholesale? The answer is yes, and the rest of this article explains how it works in practice.
Where does Epicentre's pricing come from?
Epicentre did not start as a walk-in lab. We began in 2001 in health research, and we still run large surveillance studies and clinical trials. When we say research-grade, we mean the same reference laboratories our clinical trials use, laboratories that are not generally open to the public.
Your patients' bloods are processed by SANAS-accredited pathology laboratories, and our PCR panels run through the reference laboratories we work with, so results carry the clinical reference ranges any doctor expects.
Volume is what unlocks the pricing. Running tests at trial scale gives us direct working relationships with those laboratories and a rate an individual patient could never negotiate alone. The wholesale model passes that position on to your practice.
Tens of thousands of testscan run through a single surveillance project. That volume is where the wholesale pricing comes from.
What can a practice order through Epicentre?
The core categories are below, with typical turnaround. If a test you rely on is not listed, it is worth asking: our laboratory network lets us source niche work the big labs often will not.
| Category | Examples | Turnaround |
|---|---|---|
| Functional blood panels | Thyroid, iron studies, lipogram, reproductive hormones, vitamin and mineral status | 2 to 5 days |
| Standard pathology | Full blood count, kidney and liver function, metabolic markers | 2 to 5 days |
| Gut health (PCR) | Beneficial, core and harmful microbes, with an optional disease-association report | 14 working days |
| Sexual health (PCR) | Multi-target panels for common infections, categorised by need | 5 to 7 days |
| Specialised and niche | Sourced on request through our laboratory network | Varies |
Results your practice can work with
Every result comes back to your practice as a clear lab report with the standard reference ranges any doctor expects. If your practice uses functional analysis software, you can enter or import our results into it, so your optimal ranges, interpretation and trend tracking stay in your own system and in your clinical hands. See what we test for.
How does the account model work?
Three steps, and no per-test admin in between.
Open an account
A quick setup built around your practice, not a fixed threshold.
Order through the month
Send patients to a branch or have us collect. Order what you need, when you need it.
Settle monthly
One monthly settlement for what you used. No per-test admin, no chasing invoices.
The exact rate depends on your volume and the tests you run, so the quickest way to get real numbers is to send us the list of tests you order most and let us price them against it. We would rather quote your actual basket than a generic list.
Can you collect samples for our patients?
Yes, in several ways:
- Walk-in at any of our three branches: Observatory (Cape Town), Parktown North (Johannesburg) and Hillcrest (Durban), which sits between Durban and Pietermaritzburg
- Nurse call-outs for home collection
- Corporate wellness days on site
- Home collection kits for specific tests, such as the gut health panel, which uses a stool sample in a preserving medium so it stays stable until it reaches the lab
If your patients are spread across a city or a region, we can usually find a collection route that works.
What about rural areas or patients outside South Africa?
We do a lot of work in rural areas through our research projects, so remote collection is familiar ground. Some tests are time and temperature sensitive and cannot travel far. Homocysteine, for example, has to reach the analyser quickly and cold.
When you send us your test list, we will tell you plainly which tests travel and which do not, and where a nearby collection point would be needed. We have handled cross-border logistics for research before, so if you have patients in the region, it is worth a conversation rather than an assumption.
Does this replace my role as the practitioner?
No, and it is not meant to. Epicentre supplies the testing and returns clear, plain-language reports. We explain what a marker is and what a high or low result can mean, and we refer to a doctor when a result calls for it. We do not diagnose and we do not prescribe.
The clinical relationship stays with you. What we take off your plate is the lab side: sourcing, pricing, collection and reporting, so your consult time goes to the patient rather than to logistics.
How do patients claim from medical aid?
This is one of the areas we have looked into most closely, because patients pay a lot into medical aid and often do not claim back what they are owed. In broad terms there are two routes: a patient can pay cash at a lower rate and submit the claim themselves, or they can claim through their scheme directly.
To claim, a patient needs:
- A referring doctor's practice number
- The lab documentation, which we provide
Patients with a registered chronic condition often unlock a wider benefit basket, which can cover certain tests and visits that would otherwise come out of savings. Scheme rules differ, so we work through the options with each practice rather than promising a single answer.
If you are a patient, not a practice
None of this locks you out. You can still walk in to any branch and order testing directly, with no doctor's referral needed. The wholesale model exists so your practitioner can offer you the same testing at a better price, and so proactive testing is something you can keep up rather than do once. Either route reaches the same labs and the same reports.
Start with your test list
Send us the tests you order most, at whichever branch or region you work in, and we will come back with what we can supply and at what wholesale rate. WhatsApp is the fastest channel, and it routes to a shared team inbox so nothing sits unanswered.
Common questions
Is Epicentre a wholesale lab partner for private practices?
Yes. Epicentre supplies pathology and functional testing wholesale to private practices, functional medicine, longevity and wellness clinics in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban. Practitioners open an account and pay a wholesale rate for the tests they order.
How much does a wholesale lab account cost?
Wholesale pricing depends on your volume and the tests you order, so there is no single list price. Send Epicentre the tests you order most and we will quote a wholesale rate against your actual basket.
Is there a minimum volume to open an account?
We set this up around your practice rather than a fixed threshold. Send us the tests you order most and we will structure an account that fits your volume.
Do you offer functional medicine testing?
Yes. Epicentre provides the blood panels functional medicine practices use, covering thyroid, iron studies, lipids, reproductive hormones and vitamin status. Results come back to your practice on a clear lab report with standard reference ranges, ready for your own functional interpretation.
Can we use our own functional analysis software with your results?
Yes. Results come back to your practice as a standard lab report, which you can enter or import into the functional analysis software your practice licenses.
How fast are results?
Blood results are typically ready in 2 to 5 days. PCR based sexual health results take 5 to 7 days, and gut health panels 14 working days.
Which areas do you cover?
We have branches in Observatory (Cape Town), Parktown North (Johannesburg) and Hillcrest (Durban), with nurse call-outs for home collection and corporate wellness, and remote collection for rural work.
How do I open an account?
Send Epicentre your usual test list by WhatsApp on +27 72 843 7564. We set up an account around your practice volume, then you order through the month and settle monthly for what you used.
Can you source a test you do not currently offer?
Often, yes. Through our laboratory network we can source niche and specialised tests on request. Send us the test and we will tell you what is possible.
This page is general information for practitioners and patients, not medical advice. Clinical decisions remain with the treating practitioner. If a patient has severe or worsening symptoms, they should see a doctor.
