Center for COVID Control suspends operations; more labs investigated
CHICAGO – A nationwide chain with hundreds of coronavirus testing sites is encouraging site operators to break off from Center for COVID Control management as the business suspends operations “indefinitely” and questions emerge about two other labs in the Chicago area.
Center for Covid Control founders Aleya Siyaj and Akbar Syed this week “encouraged the independent operators” of more than 300 of its affiliated collection sites to seek “affiliations with other vendors” and with a certified lab, a spokesperson said.
The corporate name shutdown and the branching off leaves open the possibility that the company, under investigation by the FBI after, may not be truly going away. The more than 300 testing sites formerly managed through CCC may begin working with other vendors and labs.
The news comes as Center for COVID Control and its primary lab, Doctors Clinical Lab, are under investigation by state and federal officials. The company and lab “provide inaccurate and deceptive” test results, fraudulently reported negative results and “represented to the federal government” that people with private or public insurance were actually uninsured, the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office alleged in a complaint.
The businesses aren’t the only Chicago-area testing operations facing scrutiny. The Illinois Department of Public Health this week confirmed it is investigating two other labs that conduct coronavirus testing: O’Hare Clinical Lab and Northshore Clinical Labs.
Center for COVID Control worked with O’Hare Clinical Lab in the past, and at least one of its sites sent tests to Northshore Clinical Labs, employees say.
The ongoing probes are raising questions about the practices of the other labs now under investigation, their relationships to one another and the dozens of coronavirus testing businesses incorporating in Illinois each month.
Between the three labs, the federal government has shelled out more than $500 million in reimbursements for coronavirus testing and treatment through the COVID-19 Uninsured Program, according to public data.
Syed and his wife are “shifting our focus away from operating the test collection marketing and management firm to responding and cooperating with legal probes, and to clearing our good names,” according to a statement provided by a spokesperson.
“With the field collection sites no longer affiliated with CCC, most headquarters operations will also wind down for the foreseeable future,” the spokesperson said.
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About 150 people will be laid off after Feb. 4 and are being “fully compensated” for the final two weeks, the spokesperson said.
“We have communicated their availability to other testing companies and placement agencies, and we truly wish them the best,” Syed said in the statement.
Center for COVID Control, at its peak, said it was operating across at least 26 states and processing more than 80,000 tests a day. The business initially “paused” test collection in mid January, citing “increased scrutiny by the media,” according to an internal memo obtained by USA TODAY.
Residents and employees in at least 19 states reported concerns about Center for COVID Control to USA TODAY. Multiple states, including Illinois, Oregon and Washington, are investigating the business and its primary lab. Iowa, Michigan and New Mexico received complaints about the sites, the attorneys general offices said. Others – including Colorado, Massachusetts, Maryland and New York – shut down or issued warnings to sites.
Center for COVID Control and its primary lab both operated out of the same Rolling Meadows, Illinois address, and call center employees answered calls for both the lab and testing sites.
The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, under the Department of Health and Human Services, documented numerous “deficiencies” at the lab and listed it as being in “immediate jeopardy” following surveys there in November and December.
The FBI searched the Rolling Meadows headquarters last weekend. An FBI spokesperson was unable to provide additional information about the search.
O’Hare Clinical Lab, Northshore Clinical Labs also under investigation
The two other Chicago-area labs under investigation, O’Hare Clinical Lab and Northshore Clinical Labs, are also raising concerns in Illinois and other states.
The Illinois Attorney General’s Office has received more than 30 complaints regarding O’Hare Clinical Lab and more than 40 regarding Northshore Clinical Labs, spokesperson Tori Joseph said. Block Club Chicago first reported the news of the O’Hare Clinical Lab investigation.
O’Hare Clinical Lab has operated testing sites at more than 30 locations in at least 10 states, according to an archived O’Hare Clinical Lab webpage. A spokesperson did not immediately confirm how many sites the lab operates.
At least ten people have filed complaints about O’Hare Clinical Lab in Kentucky, a spokesperson for the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office said. WHAS-TV first reported the issues in Kentucky.
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Meanwhile, the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services is conducting a state licensing investigation into Northshore Clinical Labs, spokesperson Nathan Orme said. KRNV-DT has documented concerns about the lab’s operations in Nevada.
Northshore Clinical Labs is led by three men who have been permanently banned by the Federal Trade Commission from participating in the debt collection business.
Brothers Hirsh and Gaurav Mohindra, the lab’s director of operations and director of business development, were sued by the Federal Trade Commission and State of Illinois in 2017 for “deceptive and unfair acts.” Hirsh was ordered to give up certain bank and investment accounts, his home and rental properties, and Gaurav was ordered to surrender $85,000, a one-kilogram gold bar, certain bank accounts and his interest in a condominium.
Omar Hussain, the lab’s CEO, was sued by the Federal Trade Commission in 2019 for his role in operating “a scheme that conned consumers into paying non-existent debts.” He was ordered to give up all funds in three bank accounts.
The last surveys regulators conducted of Northshore Clinical Labs and O’Hare Clinical Lab “are currently not available,” a U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services spokesperson told USA TODAY.
“We do not comment on complaints prior to fully investigating and deliberating the findings,” the spokesperson said. “We have no further information at this time about additional complaints received or investigated.”
Illinois Department of Public Health staff completed a survey of O’Hare Clinical Lab on Nov. 9 and of Northshore Clinical Lab on Dec. 9, on behalf of the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a spokesperson said.
Center for COVID Control’s main lab, Doctors Clinical Labs, has been reimbursed more than $155 million from the federal government’s COVID-19 Uninsured Program. O’Hare Clinical Lab has been reimbursed more than $187 million, and Northshore Clinical Labs in Chicago has been reimbursed more than $164 million.
All three labs have an “F” rating by the Better Business Bureau, and people have filed complaints about all three labs, said Steve Bernas, regional president of nonprofit Better Business Bureau. Spokespeople for all three labs attributed complaints to testing delays around the holidays, amid the surge of the omicron variant of the coronavirus.
In a statement, a spokesperson for O’Hare Clinical Lab said the omicron surge “provided enormous unforeseen challenges,” including staffing shortages, and “for a short time, lab results were delayed.”
“We closed all of our collection sites last weekend so that staff could participate in two days of additional training to make sure our customers are receiving the absolute best possible service,” the spokesperson said this week.
A notice posted to a Northshore Clinical Labs webpage earlier this month said the company “has terminated all third party operation of COVID-19 testing pop up sites, while we focus on improving processing and PCR result times during this period of extraordinarily high demand.”
A fourth Chicago-area lab not under investigation also attracted local and nation attention earlier this month when pop-up sites in Philadelphia prompted warnings from local officials. The test site operators were contracted by Lab Elite, said Matt Rankin, spokesperson for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health.
“Their materials were not professional, they were not following proper safety procedures, and they told us – falsely – that they were being funded by FEMA,” Rankin said. “Our worry is that, given the false pretenses the tables we visited were operating under, and the fact that anyone can set up a tent and say they’re conducting COVID testing, people should take extra special care.”
Lab Elite was organized in Chicago in late 2020 by Nikola Nozinic and Zishan Alvi. The pair own a pizza place and previously owned a tavern in Evanston, Illinois, that closed in late 2020.
The lab has been reimbursed more than $80 million from the federal government. Two people filed complaints about the lab with the Better Business Bureau this month, claiming they never received test results. The Illinois Department of Public Health is not currently investigating the lab, a spokesperson said.
Contact reporter Grace Hauck with tips at [email protected].
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