• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, March 11, 2011

Sam's Club is upping the ante for retail-based health clinics, offering a one-day free allergy screening effort—a $500 value—in select locations.

While many chains often offer free screenings for blood pressure diabetes, and vision, the Sam's Club allergy test is more extensive, screening for allergic reactions to house and dust mites, cat, timothy grass, Bermuda grass, Mountain Cedar, short ragweed, Alternaria (mold), milk, egg white and wheat. All participants will then receive a personalized plan, called MyAllergyPlan, making suggestions for treatment.

Among its suggestions? Allegra, an allergy medication which just became available without a prescription last week. In fact, the OTC version of Allegra, made by Sanofi-Aventis, is expected to be the big news this allergy season, with Drugstore News, a trade publication, predicting it may add $100 million to OTC allergy category this year. Walgreens, for example, has been promoting the product on its main site. (A Walgreens spokesperson says it currently has no plans to offer allergy screenings at its clinics.)