I was stupid enough to sign up for their SmartGut program. They never clearly disclose how much the test costs if you opt to use your insurance. They’re $2700. Not only that, they make it seem like you purchased 6 tests, but the $2700 charge is per test. Their billing practices are questionable, at least from the perspective of the consumer. On the BBB page for uBiome tons of people are complaining. While I can afford the surprise charge, I feel bad for the many that surely cannot.
I did uBiome a couple of years ago, paying out of pocket ~$100-$200 or so for a kit. It was ahead of its time and I think it could have a very bright future.<p>At the time the it was overhyping the present-day usefulness of the data but wasn't lying about it, similar to 23andMe. I'm hoping this is a 23andMe-like incident and not a Theranos, where the latter I guess blatantly lied about the accuracy of its tests. IMO (I occasionally work with microbiome data in our bioinformatics lab), your microbiome data today is nearly useless but will be indispensable in the future as the technology improves, and we need early adopters to use services like uBiome to get there.<p>I know nothing about uBiome's newer more expensive products and/or how they bill insurance companies. I hope they're not doing anything illegal there, or if there is a simple settlement that can be reached a la 23andMe's FDA case. I can't imagine they are doing anything more unethical than anyone else in the health insurance industry, which IMO is rotten to the core (I just saw my friend's insurance bill for a normal healthy birth + 2day stay at a hospital in SF for over $60,000 before insurance).
Video of employees walking out of the building:
<a href="https://twitter.com/sallyshin/status/1121854424727425024" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/sallyshin/status/1121854424727425024</a>
There's not much in the way of details in this article. Some other news sources are suggesting the company is being investigated for how they're billing insurance companies specifically: <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/26/the-fbi-just-raided-ubiomes-office-for-billing-practices.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/26/the-fbi-just-raided-ubiomes-...</a>
So who are the board members who signed off on its current business plan? Don't see anything on the site about the corporate board, just the SAB. The Crunchbase list (<a href="https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/ubiome/advisors/current_advisors_image_list#section-board-members-and-advisors" rel="nofollow">https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/ubiome/advisors/curr...</a>) seems outdated in light of the funding it has received from Andreessen, OS Fund, and 8 VC.
My gut bacteria was destroyed by antibiotics plus after my latest round I ended up with the c-dif toxin that can be fatal. My microbiome results were so important in getting my gut bacteria recovered and taking the right probiotics to do it. So, anyone saying the results are useless obviously never saw a set of them. I’m disappointed that this has happened because I was just starting to get my gut bacteria in line through good diet and probiotics. No snake or essential oils necessary! (Puts crystals away and looks at that poster with sarcasm!).