In Philadelphia, workers at a sidewalk covid testing tent falsely claimed to be working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said James Garrow, communications director for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, in an emailed response to questions. She said consumers should contact Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office if they are concerned about fraud or criminal activity at testing sites. Melaney Arnold, a spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Public Health, said state officials “are aware of complaints for various testing locations across the state” and are investigating.
“Guidance needs to be coming from the state and regulated at the public health level.” “I don’t think we can put this on the public to know” which sites are legitimate, Bloomgarden said.
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Eve Bloomgarden, who co-founded Illinois Medical Professionals Action Collaborative Team, an advocacy group.įake testing sites put consumers at risk for identity theft, inaccurate or missing test results, and financial losses if they’re charged for the tests, which are typically free to consumers. Subscribe to KFF Health News' free Morning Briefing.Ĭonsumers at testing sites in the Chicago area have encountered employees who aren’t wearing masks or gloves or have been asked to provide a Social Security or credit card number before a test is provided, said Dr. Unfortunately, telling the good from the bad is not always easy. “It’s not a surprise that these conditions were totally ripe for consumers to be gouged and to get fraudulent tests.”Ĭonsumers seeking testing - either a rapid antigen test that provides results in under an hour or a polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, test that generally takes longer but is more accurate - may think all testing sites are created equal, but they’re not. “These conditions change so rapidly,” said Gigi Gronvall, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security who leads the COVID-19 Testing Toolkit, which provides guidance to employers and others. And they are sounding the alarm that by visiting the pop-up industry’s sometimes makeshift tents, desperate patients could be putting their health, wallets and personal data at risk. High demand and scarce supply opened the door to bad actors, and officials in some states are having a hard time keeping up their oversight amid the proliferation. Some of the sites run by private companies offer legitimate, timely and reliable results, but others are more like weeds.
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