How to get free covid-19 tests in the US 2:19
(CNN) --
In recent months, mobile COVID-19 testing tents and vans have sprouted on urban sidewalks and streets as demand soared in response to the rapid spread of the omicron variant. .
Some of the sites run by private companies offer legitimate, timely and reliable results, but others are more like weeds and offer fake tests.
High demand and tight supply have opened the door to bad actors, with officials in some states struggling to maintain their oversight amid proliferation.
Now alarm bells are sounding that by visiting the sometimes makeshift tents of the emerging industry, desperate patients could be putting their health, wallets and personal data at risk.
"These conditions change very quickly," said Gigi Gronvall, a senior researcher at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, who runs The Covid-19 Testing Toolkit, which provides guidance to employers and others.
"It's not a surprise that these conditions were fully ripe for consumers to be scammed and to submit to fraudulent testing."
Consumers looking for tests, whether it's a rapid antigen test that provides results in less than an hour or a polymerase chain reaction test, or PCR – a test that usually takes longer but is more accurate – may think that everyone the test sites are the same, but they are not.
Unfortunately, distinguishing the good from the bad is not always easy.
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Fake covid-19 tests in several cities
Consumers at testing sites in the Chicago area have encountered employees not wearing masks or gloves or have been asked to provide a Social Security or credit card number before a test is conducted, the agency said. Dr. Eve Bloomgarden, co-founder of the Illinois Medical Professionals Collaborative Action Team, an advocacy group.
Fake testing sites put consumers at risk of identity theft, inaccurate or missing test results, and financial loss if they are charged for tests, which are typically free to consumers.
"I don't think we can put this out in the public to find out" which sites are legitimate, Bloomgarden said.
"The guidance must come from the state and be regulated at the public health level."
Melaney Arnold, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Public Health, said state officials "are aware of complaints about various testing locations across the state" and are investigating. She said consumers should contact the attorney general's office, Kwame Raoul, if they are concerned about fraud or criminal activity at testing sites.
In Philadelphia, workers at a sidewalk COVID-19 testing tent falsely claimed they were working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), said James Garrow, director of communications for the department. Philadelphia Public Health, in an email response to questions.
But FEMA told the Department that it was not funding any testing centers in the city at the time.
"Currently, there are no quick markers to help people know if a site is legitimate or not," Garrow said.
"That's why we're looking into whether it's possible to provide a banner to prove a site is legitimate."
It's hard to walk down a street in some parts of Manhattan without bumping into at least one or two of the pop-up sites. Before the holidays, people stood in long lines in the cold waiting for samples to be taken. Some vans and tents are clearly marked with company names, while others operate from what appear to be rental vans.
Sites were also ubiquitous in Los Angeles.
In some places, test sites run by the same company were clustered within walking distance of each other.
In the pre-holiday rush, the operator at a Crestview Clinical Laboratory site on Wilshire Boulevard, who declined to give her name to a reporter, said she also provided a VIP service from another testing company for people willing to pay more for a PCR test.
Covid-19 tests: what types of tests are there?
what is the difference?
A Crestview Clinical Laboratory site on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles in December.
(Chaseedaw Giles/KHN)
Public health experts say they hope concerns about the legitimacy of a mobile testing site won't stop people from getting tested.
The regulation of covid-19 testing sites
Outdoor tests also have advantages.
"If I could choose between two options while a surge is going on, one completely outdoors and one indoors, I would choose the outdoor test site," said Denis Nash, a professor of epidemiology at New York City University. York.
"And I would choose affordable home tests over both."
In general, more testing is better than less.
"I tend not to care why people are getting tested," Nash said.
"If they're doing it to be safer at a party, great. But I care if access isn't equal."
Some test operators are more prominent in neighborhoods where a large portion of residents are likely to have health insurance rather than those where people are more likely to be uninsured.
For example, a testing location map for LabQ, a company that offers mobile COVID-19 testing in the New York City area, shows dozens of locations in Manhattan but only a few in the Bronx.
One weakness in the system is that while city and state Health Departments closely monitor the labs that process Covid-19 tests, they typically do not regulate the site operators that administer the tests.
People line up outside a LabQ testing van near Columbia University in New York in December.(Michelle Andrews for KHN)
In Philadelphia, Garrow said, the only licensing requirement for Covid-19 testing sites is that the lab they use has a license from the state Department of Health showing that it meets federal standards under the law known as Improvement Amendments. clinical laboratory.
CLIA sets laboratory testing standards for accuracy, reliability, and timeliness.
In Maryland, COVID-19 testing sites must have a CLIA "waiver" from the federal government that allows them to test, said Andy Owen, deputy director of media relations for the Maryland Department of Health.
In general, laboratories in the US must have CLIA licenses, and it is also standard to require exemptions for point-of-care testing.
In December 2020, Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh issued a statement warning consumers about unauthorized COVID-19 testing operations that could collect personally identifiable information from individuals and use it to steal their identity.
Since then, the Department has not received any complaints about the pop-up testing sites, according to Aleithea Warmack, deputy director of Communications for the Office of the Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division.
Generally, a testing site operator seeking payment from a health plan for administering a Covid-19 test must have a national provider identifier, which comes from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Kristine Grow said. , spokesperson for AHIP, a trade group for health plans.
While test operators routinely request health insurance information from consumers, requesting credit card numbers is not routine.
Individual consumers generally do not have to pay out of pocket for a COVID-19 test because it is covered by insurance or by the federal government for the uninsured.
However, some people are charged if the test is not ordered by their doctor, is an urgent service, or is performed by an out-of-network provider, where "we continue to see price increases over the course of the public health emergency," Grow said.
How to identify fake and legitimate covid testing locations?
One way to identify a legitimate test operator is to check lists maintained by states and cities of test operators they work with or fund.
But many legitimate test operators aren't in official databases, Bloomgarden said.
Some independent test site operators are "highly qualified," said Scott Becker, executive director of the Association of Public Health Laboratories.
Becker went to a drive-through test site in her neighborhood in Montgomery County, Maryland.
The test operator told you which lab they used and you received the results with the lab's name on them.
"They're not all bad," Becker said.
"It's just hard for anyone to understand."
As the demand for COVID-19 tests grows, even legitimate test operators may not meet their commitments.
Theo Servedio stood in line with a handful of people at the sliding door of a mobile LabQ testing van near Columbia University in New York in December.
The 19-year-old sophomore planned to attend a frat party, but with the spike in covid cases, he wanted to get tested first.
A sign at the registration desk promised a 24-hour turnaround time on their PCR tests.
"Both are free, but the turnaround time for tests at the school has been 48 to 72 hours in the past," Servedio said.
He got his results in 24 hours.
But others were not so lucky.
According to a warning letter sent to LabQ in December by New York Attorney General Letitia James, some consumers waited more than 96 hours for their COVID-19 test results despite the company's promise of a longer time. 48 hour response.
LabQ was one of several COVID-19 testing companies that received the warnings in late December and early January.
LabQ did not respond to a request for comment.
-- KHN's Chaseedaw Giles contributed to this report.
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