N.Y.’s attorney general recovers $400,000 for consumers who say they were misled by testing labs.

The office of New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, said on Monday that it had recovered more than $400,000 for consumers who were charged by laboratories for premium services like same-day delivery of coronavirus test results, but did not get their results until much later.

The refunds were issued by ClearMD Health and Sameday Health. The attorney general’s office said the companies advertised expedited testing but repeatedly misrepresented turnaround times for results. ClearMD Health was ordered to pay more than $182,000 to 1,198 consumers, and Sameday Health was ordered to pay more than $230,000 to 3,110 consumers.

The companies were also ordered to change their advertising, and train employees to provide accurate information about turnaround times, according to the attorney general’s office.

“It’s simple: Testing sites and labs must follow the law and accurately advertise when consumers can expect their results, otherwise they can expect to hear from my office,” Ms. James said in a statement.

A representative for Sameday Health said in a statement on Tuesday that “We thank the attorney general for addressing this matter quickly and fairly, and nothing we could add to her statement this week on the issue from last year would be of any benefit.”

ClearMD Health representatives did not respond to requests for comment on Monday and Tuesday.

Ms. James’s office issued warning letters in December and January to six laboratory companies —  ClearMD Health, Sameday Health and four others — concerning promised turnaround times for test results.

Investigators began looking into the issues after consumers reported that the wait times for test results at one of the sites, which were supposed to be no longer than 72 hours, sometimes reached as long as 11 days. Some people said they had paid ClearMD Health as much as $498 to receive test results within two hours but had to wait much longer.

At the time, the Omicron variant was surging in New York and across the United States, causing a spike in demand for coronavirus testing unlike anything seen since the early days of the pandemic. Supplies ran short, lines at testing sites stretched for hours and pharmacies sold out of at-home tests. At the peak of the Omicron wave, 79,777 new cases were identified in New York State on Jan. 9 alone.

To keep up with demand, New York City and federal authorities opened dozens of additional public testing sites and arranged for the distribution of more at-home tests. City officials said recently that at-home kits would be handed out at 14 cultural sites and 27 public libraries throughout the city.