Fraudulent ‘pop-up’ COVID testing centers are rampant. Here are 8 tips to help protect against phony clinics

Tricia Poreda recently walked through the COVID-19 testing center on the northwestern side of Chicago and was immediately appalled by the lack of basic health and safety protocols at the facility.

She remembered that the employee taking the sample did not change gloves or wash her hands between the patients. The site did not appear to enforce social distance, and the employees conducting the tests did not wear proper personal protective equipment.

“If you didn’t have a (COVID) when you entered, it’s likely that you had it when you left,” said Poreda, an ICU nurse who found him away from the center. Said. Another place to be tested for viruses. “Some of those places are super-spreader sites in their own right.”

With the medical professionals by the COVID-19 test, which is in high demand in the Chicago area Government officials It warns consumers to be very vigilant for substandard or fraudulent “pop-up” test centers. Some of them were found to work in a crude setting, but others have been reported to give patients false results or no results at all.

The COVID Control Center, one of the chains of Illinois-based coronavirus testing sites, was temporarily closed during multiple investigations by federal authorities and various state agencies.

The Minnesota Attorney General’s office announced on Wednesday that it had filed a proceeding against the company and Doctors Clinical Laboratory Inc., an Illinois-based laboratory. They collected a sample of the patient, but claimed that “neither could be provided.” test According to the authorities’ news release, the results, or forged or inaccurate test results were provided. “

Both companies did not immediately return Tribune’s request for comment. A statement on the Center for COVID Control website states that the business will be “suspended” due to high demand and stressful staffing.

“At certain Covid Control Center (CCC) locations, the surge in Omicron variants has increased the demand for testing,” a statement on January 13 said. “This unusually high patient demand, as widely reported, stresses staffing resources in a subset of our locations and impacts normal customer service standards and diagnostic goals.”

A man in the northwestern suburbs was issued twice this month for conducting an illegal coronavirus test from his car in the parking lot of a former Baker’s Square restaurant in Niles, according to village officials.

When Social media site There is a lot of talk about the shade flyby night COVID test center. A woman posted on Facebook site Chicago Vaccine Hunters that she recently received a negative test result from a test center in the western suburbs.

“This would be good news, except that I haven’t participated in the test yet!” She wrote on the site.

Earlier this month, Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of public health in Illinois, advised residents to be wary of potentially fraudulent inspection centers.

“I would like to call attention to some of these clinics,” she said. “Unfortunately, there are people who are trying to trick people into taking advantage of these crazy times. If you have any doubts about the test location you are looking at, go ahead and ask a few questions. Which lab does the site use? When and from whom do you receive the results? “

Here are eight tips to help you identify which test center is legal and protect yourself from different types of COVID-19 test scams.

1. If possible, start with a state-sponsored test site. Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul recently warned about unregulated testing centers, urging residents to first try government testing sites or health provider-recommended testing sites. Test locations can be found on the Illinois Public Health Service website, the Cook County Health Service website, and the US Department of Health and Human Services website.

2. Ask about the medical director, the type of test performed, and the laboratory used for the results. Infectious disease expert Dr. Robert Murphy suggested asking for the name and qualifications of the site’s medical officer.

“A quick search on Google should be beneficial,” said Murphy, managing director of the Global Health Institute at Northwestern University and professor of infectious diseases at Feinberg School of Medicine. “If they don’t give you a valid and qualified name, don’t go there.”

Ask for the exact name of the test being performed and whether the test has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Consumers can ask for the name of the laboratory that handles the test and find out if the laboratory is properly certified, officials said.

3. Get a phone number. According to the Attorney General’s Office, ask when the results will be available and how the results will be communicated to you. Ask for the phone number and who can call if you have any questions or concerns about the test results.

4. Being asked to pay for the test at your own expense is a red flag. The Attorney General’s office added that consumers need to be careful if the site requires cash or credit card payments for testing.Most test locations “charge instead Insurance companyOr, if the individual is not insured, ask for a refund from the Federal Fund, “according to the Attorney General’s website.

5. If the location says it does not accept insurance, go to another location. “If the site doesn’t accept insurance, this is another danger signal because the insurer must accept the COVID inspection request,” Murphy added. “If they don’t accept your insurance, including Medicaid or Medicare, go elsewhere.”

6. Check health and safety standards. Dr. Elizabeth Davis, Medical Director of Community Health Disparities at Rush University Medical Center, said: “The site must be clean. People need to disinfect hands and change gloves among all patients. They need to wear medical masks.”

When undergoing a rapid test, Davis asked for the brand name and expiration date and advised to make sure it had not expired.

“There is a social distance in the field and we need a mechanism to limit the flow,” she added.

7. Check the COVID-19 test at home before purchase. The Attorney General’s office has also warned consumers about potential fake home-based test kits for sale. The FDA has a list of approved home test kits. The FDA also maintains a list of fraudulent COVID-19 treatment and preventive products, including the names of several COVID tests.

You can expect to pay $ 14 to $ 25 for a pack of home rapid test kits. Report fraudulent tests or price cuts to the state Attorney General’s office.

8. Beware of fake websites when signing up for a free government-issued COVID test. The Better Business Bureau warns consumers to be wary of fraudulent and similar websites as the Biden administration provides U.S. homes with the free COVID-19 test requested through the U.S. Postal Service. ..

According to the BBB, fraudsters often use this type of government initiative to create fake sites to access financial and other sensitive information.

“You follow a link to a seemingly official website,” BBB says on that website. “It may have the United States Postal Service (USPS) logo, just like a real website. There is also a form to request a test. But when you start filling out the form, you notice something has changed. Probably, in this fake version, for personal information such as social security numbers and Medicare IDs. You can also pretend to pay for shipping and request credit card details. “

BBB advises consumers to look up domain names. The federal website is special.usps.com/testkits, but fake websites can be swapped with a few letters or contain misspellings. The BBB also notes that real websites only require names and addresses. No social security numbers, insurance information or other sensitive data are required.

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