GS Labs claims that the vast majority of the 2.1 million tests it has performed, as of May, were reported quickly to public health authorities and helped prevent spread of the virus. “While GS Labs aimed for perfection, few businesses can credibly claim to have achieved perfection operating during the pandemic,” the company said in a statement. In response to written questions from APM Reports, a company spokesperson asserted that GS Labs has addressed complaints about its performance, which occurred largely while the company was expanding its operations during the first two years of the pandemic. Officials with GS Labs declined interview requests. GS Labs is countersuing in two of the cases (in Missouri and Minnesota) and in Minnesota filed a lawsuit against the insurer Medica seeking payment for Covid-19 tests. Three health insurance companies, including Premera in Washington, have accused the company of “price gouging.” Premera is suing GS Labs in federal court for attempting to exploit the pandemic by subjecting patients to “expensive and medically unnecessary testing” that, through early January, ran as high as $979 for a PCR test. A dozen employees in seven states told APM Reports that GS Labs pushed customers to submit to all three kinds of tests that the company offered. The investigation found that in at least six states GS Labs struggled with backlogs of test results, some involving thousands of tests at a time, reported to public health officials up to months late. Journalists interviewed more than 65 consumers, employees and public health officials, and reviewed public records from 11 states and federal court filings from four lawsuits.

A team of journalists with APM Reports – the investigative reporting unit of American Public Media – spent nearly a year examining the company’s track record of testing.

The problems in Washington were uncovered as part of a larger investigation into GS Labs, which has operated testing sites across the country and currently has locations in six states. “This lab shouldn’t even be around with these delayed responses and lack of accuracy etc.” “Sheesh!!” wrote then Snohomish County case investigation supervisor Andrew Nguyen in October, after hearing about another delayed result, in an email obtained through a records request. And it continued to deliver results weeks late, or not at all, making it nearly impossible for public health workers to track and trace those cases. Even after one of those local officials sent a complaint to the state, GS Labs continued to operate through fall 2021. In the spring, officials with both the state and county health departments dealt with the fallout of hundreds of backlogged test results, some of which arrived three weeks after the patient samples were collected. The company began raising concerns within weeks of opening its first location in the state, in December 2020, when some consumers and company employees complained of high prices and unnecessary testing. The Nebraska-based GS Labs operates five Covid testing sites in Washington. Maha-based GS Labs, which operates five sites in Washington, is under investigation by state and federal authorities.Ī private Covid-19 testing company that claims to be one of the largest in the state continues to operate across Washington despite a history of frustrating consumers and public health officials. This story was co-produced by KUOW and American Public Media.

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