Minnesota sues pop-up COVID testing company, alleging fake results

Jan. 20—A private company that offered free coronavirus testing at eight Minnesota locations provided false results to some of their customers, Minnesota authorities alleged Wednesday.

In a lawsuit announced by Attorney General Keith Ellison, authorities allege that the Center for COVID Control and its affiliated lab, Doctors Clinical Laboratory, fraudulently told some people they were negative for COVID-19 and provided customers with reports that were "often deceptively riddled with inaccurate and false information," among other alleged malfeasances. In some cases, people were sent test results even though they never provided a sample to be tested.

The companies, which did not respond for a request for comment Wednesday, had come under scrutiny in a number of states over the past several weeks as a growing number of customers complained of shoddy operations that included delayed or incomplete results for tests, as well as crowded testing centers that seemed prime to spread the coronavirus; similar allegations are contained in Minnesota's lawsuit. Those known to be investigating the complaints range from the Minnesota-North Dakota Better Business Bureau to the BBB's Oregon counterpart and the Oregon Department of Justice.

Acknowledging the scrutiny, the company had recently announced that it was halting collections of samples to be tested due to "operational strain" during the omicron surge, "with plans to reopen Saturday." Officials with Ellison's office said they were under the impression that the company would only reopen local locations for rapid tests, but that they would be watching closely.

The lawsuit asks a court to shut down any further deceptive or fraudulent practices, assess fines of up to $25,000 per violation of certain state laws, pay back lost wages or other costs of customers who were given false results or no results, and pay for the state's legal costs.

Both companies are based in suburban Chicago.

IMPACT UNCERTAIN

Beginning in the fall of 2021, the Center for COVID Control offered six pop-up testing locations in the metro area — including one at 729 E. Seventh St. in St. Paul — as well as one one in Rochester and one in Virginia in northern Minnesota. The operations were part of an industry of private testing companies that has sprung up during the pandemic.

It wasn't immediately clear Wednesday how many tests the company had administered in Minnesota, how many results it had reported to the state, or the total impact its now-questioned results might have had on the state's overall data used to track the pandemic.

Assistant Health Commissioner Dan Huff described the company as a "newer player" in the landscape of Minnesota testing. The lawsuit alleges that the company didn't report "any" of their results to the Minnesota Department of Health, which would be "highly unusual" for a testing lab, until MDH complained. Doctors Clinical Laboratory then sent two batches of results, 74 percent of which were listed as positive — a figure more than 10 times the statewide level — suggesting something was amiss.

While the Center for COVID Control didn't charge customers for the on-site tests, it did take images of driver's licenses and sought reimbursement for test costs from private health insurers and the federal government.

The company has billed more than $113 million in costs to the federal government, Assistant Attorney General Noah Llewellen told reporters in a video conference call announcing the lawsuit to reporters Wednesday. Llewellen said some company employees or former employees had been cooperating with investigators, and the lawsuit alleges that the company's computers didn't have the option for anywhere near all the health insurance companies doing business in Minnesota, and the software defaulted to "uninsured."

Ellison said he couldn't comment on other investigations, civil or criminal, he might be aware of.

'A TOTAL DISASTER'

Employees of the companies described a system overwhelmed by a flood of testing samples and owners unwilling to hire more people to try to address what was becoming an untenable situation.

To customers like Edward Hugener, "It was a total disaster."

Hugener, who spoke to reporters during Ellison's briefing, said he went with his daughter to a Center for COVID Control location on Hiawatha Avenue in Minneapolis on Dec. 29. The small office was crowded with people, many of whom appeared to be swabbing their own noses with no staff supervision. Workers were shouting out negative test results to the crowd, including people's names.

"I know what shady looks like, and this is it," Hugener said Wednesday. He said he filled out some testing forms that included their information but left without either he or his daughter providing a sample. He took a test elsewhere.

Later that night, he got an email saying he was negative for COVID, and the next morning, his daughter received a similar email. His daughter's email said she had provided a sample that morning — an impossibility, since she was in school.

HOW TO GET TESTED

In addition to private testing sites, store-bought tests and a new federal program to provide free at-home rapid test kits, the state offers a number of options for those seeking testing.