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GS Labs COVID-19 Test Lawsuit Overview:
- Who: GS Labs has been hit with a lawsuit from insurance provider Premera.
- Why: Premera says the lab attempted to exploit the COVID-19 pandemic for its own financial gain by manipulating people into getting unneeded COVID-19 tests, then charging exorbitant prices for them.
- Where: The lawsuit was filed in Seattle.
GS Labs has attempted to exploit the COVID-19 pandemic for its own financial gain by manipulating people into getting unneeded COVID-19 tests — some costing up to $979 — and billing insurance providers millions of dollars to cover them, a new lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit was filed in Seattle on Oct. 14 by nonprofit insurance provider Premera Blue Cross, which alleges Nebraska-based GS Labs systematically subjects patients to expensive and medically unnecessary testing and manipulates them into thinking they need the three COVID-19 tests that GS Labs offers, “such that patients are being lied to just so the company can make a profit.”
GS Labs has billed Premera $26 million for COVID-19 tests performed at inflated prices and based on false information, the lawsuit says, and the insurer is entitled to recoup the amounts it paid for medically unnecessary, unauthorized, and faulty testing.
“GS Labs is neither entitled to payment at the extraordinarily high rates it demands, nor for its medically unnecessary, unauthorized, or faulty testing,” the lawsuit reads.
GS Labs charges “extraordinarily high prices” ranging from $380 to $979 per test, the lawsuit says, which, in some cases, is 10 times higher than the prices charged by other labs.
“But GS Labs maintains that insurers must pay these high prices, irrespective of its illegal testing practices and the quality of its work, due to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act).”
The federal CARES Act requires health insurers to reimburse laboratories for COVID-19 testing at the “cash price” they post to their respective websites.
However, Premera contends GS Labs has inflated its cash prices for those with private insurance in attempts to force insurers to pay “exorbitant prices,” threatening to sue them, and to report them to federal authorities, unless they pay in full.
“But GS Labs’ ‘cash prices’ are a sham,” Premera says. “For individuals paying cash, GS Labs charges rates that are less than one third of those it has posted to its website.”
According to the lawsuit, GS Labs attempted to obscure the sham prices by offering every cash-pay patient a “discount” of at least 70 percent on its “cash prices,” without noting that fact in its “cash price” disclosure.
GS Labs only takes commercial insurance or cash payments, and does not accept Medicare, which covers much of the elderly population most vulnerable to COVID-19, or Medicaid, which covers those who may have difficulty paying for COVID-19 testing out-of-pocket.
Premera further alleges GS Labs “peppers its claims with falsehoods,” including false diagnoses to get higher payments, and it frequently fails to maintain high quality levels in its testing and reporting of results. The insurer says the lab has billed Premera for hundreds of COVID-19 tests that were tainted by “deviat[ions] from applicable laboratory standards for testing facilities” that “may have impacted [patients’] test results,” the lawsuit reads.
Premera is suing for violations of the Washington Consumer Protection Act and seeks damages, declaratory relief, injunctive relief, interest, legal fees and costs, and a jury trial.
What is the maximum you have been charged for a COVID-19 PCR test? Let us know in the comments section and if your insurance covered it.
Premera Blue Cross is represented by Gwendolyn C. Payton of Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP.
The GS Labs Inflated COVID Tests Lawsuit is Premera Blue Cross v. GS Labs LLC, Case No. 2:21-cv-01399, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.
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16 thoughts onGS Labs Manipulates People Into Getting 3 COVID Tests, Costing Up to $979, New Lawsuit Alleges
I was fired from this company for not forcing people to get antibody tests. I was ensured they were covered, but in fact the CARES doesn’t cover because there’s no diagnostic value- which GS stated there was. Every nurse that performed these tests without consent should lose their licenses, but without complaints filed this won’t happen.
Same here. 460 for 2tests. So far, no bill. Can’t insurance cover at least a percentage of it? This is nonsense. I feel bad for everyone here! Can’t imagine families with several children, parents who have to get tested just to go to work and pay for all of this. Families are strapped and stressed as it is. This cuts pretty deep. 5k for a small family to be tested, only once? Wow
My insurance is through UHC, but the same thing happened to me with GS Labs. I was lead to believe that testing would be covered by insurance and now UHC is telling me I’m responsible for about $800 in COVID tests because GS Labs is out of network. I would’ve never made an appointment with GS Labs had I known it would cost me so much. This is total b.s. All 3 times, I had symptoms and scheduled these tests because I thought it was the responsible thing to do. I feel completely let down and taken advantage of.
Also a victim. Add me please, over $800 for a rapid test in early 2021.
Premera did not cover our tests, we were billed $810 for each of my kids and $430 for me to be tested 6 months ago, and just received the EOBs. We were coerced to get all the tests available, and we said okay in order for my kids to be allowed in school. The second time we were tested, we did not receive any results at all. Missed 10 days of school, only to be told eventually (after emailing, calling, making new GS lab accounts) that it had been done within 24 hours and no one told me. Our grand total for bills is over $2k, for 3 of us, twice.