COVID Testing Company Faked or Delayed Results, Lawsuit Says

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An Illinois-based COVID-19 testing company with at least 13 testing sites in Washington state faked or delayed results, lied to patients, and failed to store test samples properly, according to a lawsuit filed Monday by Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson.

The lawsuit, which was filed in King County Superior Court, said the Center for COVID Control operated in 300 U.S. locations, collected tens of thousands of tests each day, and took advantage of people when frequent testing was in high demand.

“Center for COVID Control contributed to the spread of COVID-19 when it provided false negative results,” Ferguson said in a statement.

“These sham testing centers threatened the health and safety of our communities,” he said. “They must be held accountable.”

The lawsuit said the Center for COVID Control stored tests in garbage bags for more than a week rather than properly refrigerating them. The lawsuit alleges it also backdated sample collection dates so stale samples would still be processed and told employees to lie to patients when people asked about delayed results.

Ferguson also named Akbar Syed, Aleya Siyaj, and Doctors Clinical Laboratory in the lawsuit. Syed and Siyaj, who are married and live in Illinois, co-founded the company, according to The Seattle Times . Doctors Clinical Laboratory, which acted as the testing lab, is based in Illinois and tested the samples collected in Washington, though it’s not registered with the Washington Secretary of State’s Office.

The Center for COVID Control didn’t respond to requests for comment, news outlets reported on Monday. All of its locations are closed “until further notice,” according to The Associated Press.

The company had been operating in Washington since October and saw an increase in demand as the highly contagious Omicron variant spread across the country. The company’s testing locations promised free test results within 15 minutes for a rapid test and within 48 hours for a more sensitive PCR test.

For several weeks, customers across the country have complained about delayed or missing test results. Health authorities in several states, including California and Illinois, have launched investigations into the company, the AP reported.

In Lakewood, WA, city officials issued a stop-work order at the company’s site in mid-January after receiving complaints and finding that the testing site was operating without a business license, The Seattle Times reported.

The Center for COVID Control didn’t have a license to operate anywhere in Washington except Yakima, Ferguson’s office said. The company halted operations in mid-January due to the recent demand for testing but said it planned to reopen once more staff had been trained, according to a news release on its website.

Several former employees submitted complaints to Ferguson’s office. One former Illinois-based employee, who oversaw a data entry team, quit after “trash bags of tests piled up and my team was instructed to lie to patients on a daily basis,” Ferguson’s statement said.

As the company fell behind on processing samples, it was “flooded” with calls about results, which often led to hours-long wait times, the lawsuit said. Employees were told to tell patients to expect results in 24 hours, even if there wasn’t any information about the sample, or that the results were inconclusive, which would require people to get another test and allow the company to bill for more tests.

One Washington resident visited a Center for COVID Control testing site for a rapid test. At the time, she had been exposed to COVID-19 and had symptoms. She was told her result would be available in 2 hours, but after 5 hours passed, an employee told her the sample was lost and she would need to take another test, Ferguson’s statement said.

“Two hours after taking my second COVID-19 test, I still had not received a result from the Center for COVID Control. An employee told me that they could not find my sample again,” she told Ferguson’s office. “However, one minute after being told my second test was lost, I received an email from the testing site telling me my COVID-19 test was negative.”

Suspicious of the result, she booked another appointment at a Washington Department of Health testing site. She received a positive result.

As of Monday, the company has billed the federal government $124 million for tests for “uninsured” patients, the lawsuit said, marking patients as uninsured even if they were insured. Patients who had Medicare coverage were also told to write “no insurance” on their form. As testing ramped up, the company “streamlined” its data entry form and auto-filled “uninsured” as the default insurance for all patients, Ferguson’s office said.

The lawsuit requests the King County Superior Court to order the Center for COVID Control to pay civil penalties of up to $12,500 per violation of the Consumer Protection Act, give up any profits, and permanently close all testing locations.

Sources

State of Washington, King County Superior Court: “State of Washington v. Center for COVID Control, LLC; Doctors Clinical Laboratory; Akbar Syed; and Aleya Siyaj.”

Washington State Office of the Attorney General: “AG Ferguson files lawsuit against Center for COVID Control over invalid and false test results.”

The Seattle Times: “COVID testing company faked test results, lied to patients, WA AG lawsuit says.”

The Associated Press: “Lawsuit accuses COVID-19 testing company of faking results.”

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