You're not imagining it.

If your symptoms get better when you're not home and come back when you are, that's data. Most patients we work with have been told "it's probably stress" or "keep taking the Zyrtec" before they find us. It's not stress. Let's map your home.

What we hear from patients we end up working with

• "I cough every morning. It clears by the time I'm at work. By Sunday night it's back."
• "My allergist switched me to a third inhaler. It's helping but not enough."
• "My kid's eczema flares for a week every time we visit grandma. Grandma has cats. Fine. But why does it also flare sometimes at home, and we don't have cats?"
• "We had a leak in 2022. Plumber fixed it. Drywall guy patched it. No one tested anything."
• "The musty smell in the basement. Everyone tells me it's normal."
• "We're closing on this house in two weeks. The inspector said 'might want to follow up' on staining in the basement. Our realtor said it's nothing."

If any of that sounds like you, you're in the right place.

What we are

Canary is a marketplace that connects you to:

1. A certified environmental inspector in your ZIP who collects samples in your home;
2. An accredited environmental lab that analyzes them;
3. A licensed clinician — an MD, DO, or nurse practitioner — who reads your health questionnaire and signs the Letter of Medical Necessity (LMN) that lets you pay with HSA or FSA dollars under IRS Publication 502.

We are not a clinic. We don't make diagnoses. The inspectors don't diagnose either; they sample. The provider's LMN doesn't diagnose; it documents medical necessity. The actual clinical plan stays with your treating doctor — but now they have data from your home to work with.

What we are NOT

• We're not a "detox" or "wellness" program.
• We're not a mold remediation company. (We can refer one after testing if your result indicates it.)
• We're not a holistic-medicine practice. The clinicians who sign LMNs are mainstream physicians and NPs operating in their licensed scope.
• We won't sell you ozone generators or air purifiers we make commission on.

How HSA and FSA pay for it

IRS Publication 502 makes environmental testing and remediation HSA / FSA-eligible when it's prescribed by a licensed clinician for the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, or treatment of a diagnosed disease. The Letter of Medical Necessity is the document that ties your symptoms (which you describe in a questionnaire) to your home environment (which the inspector samples) — and lets your HSA administrator approve the reimbursement.

Practically: a $385 mold + IAQ panel costs about $293 after HSA (24% marginal federal rate). A $4,000 mold remediation, prescribed in the LMN as medically necessary, costs about $3,040 after HSA. Full HSA / FSA guide →

What it's like to use Canary

Four minutes of questions. A clear price. A signed LMN within one business day. A certified inspector in your home within a week. A PDF report with action levels, plain-English interpretation, and next-step suggestions. The signed LMN + the receipt for HSA reimbursement, all in your account, all time-bound 15-minute signed downloads — never a link you'd be nervous to share.

Walkthrough of the full flow →

What this won't fix

Testing your home doesn't fix anything by itself. It tells you what's there. The fix is some combination of: removing the source (mold, carpet, lead paint, contaminated water line), addressing the medical side with your clinician (referral to an allergist, prescription change, allergen immunotherapy), and keeping it from coming back (humidity control, HVAC, water filtration). The report will spell out what's worth what.

Edge cases

I'm a renter, not an owner.

You can still test. You'll need the landlord's consent in some states (the inspector will confirm). Your results may strengthen a habitability case under your city's housing code. Some tenant protection laws (like NYC's mold mandate, MA's lead law, Awaab's Law analogues being considered in several states) make the test directly actionable.

I'm buying a house.

Most pre-purchase contracts include a 5-10 day inspection contingency. We do 7-day pre-purchase panels. Book within the first day or two of the contingency to leave room for results + negotiation. If your symptoms are part of why you're testing, the LMN flow still applies and HSA still pays.

My doctor is skeptical of environmental testing.

That's fair. The literature on environmental medicine is mixed in some areas. We focus on the areas where it isn't: allergen avoidance for diagnosed allergic rhinitis and asthma (AAAAI / NHLBI), lead exposure (CDC), mold for water-damaged buildings (EPA / WHO / AIHA), PFAS for drinking water (EPA NPDWR 2024). Most mainstream allergists, pulmonologists, and family medicine clinicians will accept results in those domains. If yours doesn't, we can connect you with a Canary-network provider for a second opinion.

What if the test comes back negative?

A negative result is a real answer. It rules out environmental causes you can otherwise spend months chasing, and frees you to focus the clinical workup elsewhere (food sensitivities, non-allergic mechanisms, structural breathing issues, etc.). We consider a negative test a successful test.

Privacy, before you go further

You'll see this on every PHI surface in the app, but it's worth saying up front. Your diagnosis, symptoms, and medications are encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM and are visible only to the provider reviewing your LMN. Your inspector does not see them. Your address is encrypted; it's shared with the inspector only after they accept the booking. You can download everything we hold about you in one tap, request amendments, and pull a six-year accounting of every PHI access on your record. Full privacy policy →

Start

Create an account. If you'd rather start with your clinician — find a Canary provider who can refer you in.