GS Labs settles claims it overcharged patients and failed to deliver COVID-19 test results
The company 'exploited the huge demand for testing to make large profits,' the complaint alleges
Remember how much fun it was getting those nasal swab COVID tests? Adding to the inconvenience, many patients had trouble getting results and wound up paying much more than they expected. A large swatch of those complaints have just been settled in court.
GS Labs has agreed to a $4.87 million multistate settlement of complaints that it overcharged patients and failed to deliver COVID-19 test results promptly. Patients affected by the settlement should soon be contracted.
“[Consumers] deserve medical testing with integrity, fair pricing, and timely results. Unfortunately, GS Labs exploited the huge demand for testing to make large profits while not fulfilling their obligations to patients,” said Dave Sunday, Attorney General of Pennsylvania, one of the states that brought the complaint against GS.
“This settlement will return money to [those] who were relying on this company to provide critical and timely medical information.”
The multistate coalition investigated numerous problems with GS Lab’s nationwide testing practices from 2020 through 2022, including:
GS Labs intentionally advertised inflated “cash prices” for COVID-19 tests, sometimes as high as $380 per test, or nearly $1,000 for multi-panel tests. These “cash prices” were used to justify overcharging patients with insurance coverage, the states charged. While GS Labs offered a “discount” from these “cash prices” to those actually paying in cash, almost 30,000 patients still paid much more than the market rate for their COVID-19 tests.
For hundreds of thousands of patients, GS Labs guaranteed test results within 3 days and failed to deliver on that promise, sometimes taking a week or longer to send test results to patients.
Despite advertising that patients with insurance would have no out-of-pocket costs, the company charged administrative fees as high as $49 per test to about 70,000 patients.
Online restitution
Under the terms of the settlement, GS Labs will pay $3.6 million in restitution to patients, including $1.8 million for cash-paying patients that were overcharged for tests, $1.7 million for patients that were charged administrative fees, and $33,692 for cash-paying patients that did not receive test results within 3 days. The settlement creates an online restitution mechanism that will be funded and administered by GS Labs, with oversight by the multistate coalition.
The company will also pay $1.25 million to the multistate group.GS Labs has stated that it no longer offers testing services and is not operational. As part of the settlement, if GS Labs decides to resume testing services, the company must make several changes to its advertising and sales practices.
This settlement was negotiated by the Attorneys General of Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Washington. Joining them in the settlement, alongside Attorney General Sunday, are the Attorneys General of Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, and South Dakota.