COVID testing provider to pay $1M to WA residents for exorbitant prices
A COVID-19 testing provider will pay nearly $1 million to Washington residents in a settlement agreement after the company was accused of overcharging patients and failing to deliver timely results during the height of the pandemic.
Washington is one of 18 states that investigated complaints between 2020 and 2022 about GS Labs, a private testing company based in Omaha, Nebraska, that set up testing sites all over the country, the Washington attorney general's office said in a Wednesday statement. Per the settlement, GS Labs will pay a total of $3.6 million to patients in those states, including $1.8 million to people who were overcharged for tests, $1.7 million for people who were charged administrative fees and $34,000 for people who did not receive their results within three days, as advertised.
In Washington, about 11,000 residents expected to qualify for restitution will receive more than $987,000 in total, ranging from $5 to $200 each, the attorney general's office said.
"During the height of the pandemic, GS Labs unfairly profited off of Washingtonians just trying to get tested for COVID-19," state Attorney General Nick Brown said in the statement.
The multistate investigation found GS Labs intentionally advertised inflated prices for COVID tests, sometimes as high as $380 per test or nearly $1,000 for more comprehensive screenings, according to Brown's office. For hundreds of thousands of patients, the provider also guaranteed test results within three days, though it sometimes took a week or longer.
On top of the high prices for tests, GS Labs also charged about 70,000 patients administrative fees up to $49 per test, Brown's office said.
GS Labs did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A number listed for its call center is no longer in service.
By 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, the company's website homepage was replaced with a notice that it had been permanently closed, with a link to refund requests.
According to KUOW reporting in 2022, GS Labs once ran five COVID testing sites in Washington and began raising concerns within weeks of opening its first location here in December 2020. A yearlong investigation by APM Reports, an investigative reporting unit of American Public Media, found Washington was not alone - and that after opening at least 75 testing sites in 21 states in fall 2020, GS Labs faced a backlog of tests, sometimes involving thousands at a time, later resulting in several state health department investigations and at least three health insurance companies to accuse the company of price gouging.
Per this week's settlement agreement, GS Labs no longer offers testing services and if it decides to resume testing, the company must make several changes to its advertising and sale practices.
Those changes include disclosing the maximum time it takes to give test results; stop charging patients administrative fees and fees higher than market rates; and offering full refunds if it does not deliver results within the advertised time period, among others.
Are you eligible?
Eligible consumers include people charged out-of-pocket who paid more than the market rate for testing; people who paid for test results that were not delivered in three days; and people who paid administrative fees to GS Labs.
To determine eligibility and receive a restitution payment, Brown's office pointed customers to a brief online verification process on the GS Labs website at www.gslabstesting.com.
All information used to verify a consumer's identity will only be used for that purpose and will not be saved, stored, or shared," Brown's office said. "The refund process involves digital security that will ensure the safety of any submitted information.
Customers are encouraged to complete the online form as soon as possible, as refunds will be processed on a rolling basis. GS Labs will email affected customers with more information about the payments within 30 days, the agreement says.
Other states represented in the settlement include Oregon, Arizona, Colorado, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Nebraska.
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This story was originally published June 11, 2026 at 6:39 AM.