#Rich New Yorkers pony up $400 or more for COVID-test house calls

Sophie Kaye paid $400 for a rapid COVID-19 test at her Upper West Side apartment — and the doctor threw in a flu shot.

For the 23-year-old Kaye, the speed and the comfort — let alone lowering her risk of being exposed at a clinic — were well worth the hundreds more for a house call. And other New Yorkers, mostly in Manhattan, are ponying up the big bucks, too.

Because of her job with a hotel and restaurant group, Kaye decided she was going to need a test if she wanted to be with her family on Thanksgiving. The gathering was small but one sister has asthma and her aunt is over 65.

“They’re at risk, and I didn’t want to expose anyone,” Kaye told The Post. 

So, about a week before the holiday, Kaye called Mark Golberg, an acquaintance whose father is Dr. Alexander Golberg, aka Dr. Hamptons.

Dr. Golberg launched a concierge practice in the Hamptons last spring, offering the rich — at their estates — everything from COVID consultations and pain therapy to Botox shots and non-surgical nose jobs.

Now, though, the doctor is devoting his time to swabbing noses in the city.

A visit runs $400 to $500, depending on travel distance and the number of people being tested. Kaye’s company footed her bill. 

“We’re completely all over the map — Upper West, Upper East, SoHo, Brooklyn. You name it we go,” said Mark Golberg, who oversees his dad’s enterprise.

Ten nurses work for the doctor — four at a Nolita clinic and six who can make house calls on their own if Golberg gets swamped.

For her test, Kaye chose the living room. She settled back on the couch while Golberg swabbed her nose.

“It felt much longer,” she said, “but it wasn’t uncomfortable.”

Next, the doctor inserted the swab in a testing analyzer, about half the length of a laptop, that he had set up on the coffee table. And they waited.

To kill a few of the 25 minutes, Golberg asked Kaye if she wanted a flu shot. She rolled up her sleeve.

“Everything — the test, the shot — was quick, easy and painless,” she told The Post.

Then, they watched the screen for the results. “Negative” popped up.