Three counties in the Bay Area have suspended the supply of a coronavirus vaccine to a San Francisco-based health care provider, whose procedures have allowed ineligible individuals to cut the line, local officials say.
The company, One Medical, is no longer receiving vaccines from San Francisco, San Mateo or Alameda counties, and San Francisco health officials said on Wednesday that they had instructed One Medical to return more than 1,600 doses.
When asked about their practices in the bay area last week, One Medical officials said the allegations that the company knowingly ignored the eligibility guidelines “are in direct contradiction to our real approach to administering vaccines.”
Early in the launch of the vaccine, counties allocated the vaccine doses to One Medical after the company demonstrated that it could distribute them efficiently. The company offered free trials of its $ 199 membership program to people who wanted to apply for the vaccine.
But this month, San Francisco health department officials asked One Medical to provide information on how it was administering the COVID-19 vaccines after receiving complaints that ineligible San Francisco citizens were being vaccinated.
The company’s response indicated that people who did not meet the state’s criteria for vaccine eligibility at that time had been inoculated.
“Because of this and our inability to verify the (eligibility) of this cohort, DPH stopped allocating doses to One Medical,” said a health department spokesman on Wednesday by email.
Five days after One Medical responded to the health department’s inquiry, Jonathan Sears, deputy director of vaccine operations at the COVID-19 Command Center in San Francisco, instructed the company to return 270 vials of the Pfizer vaccine – containing 1,620 doses – which he had listed as “saved for other uses. “
San Mateo and Alameda counties also stopped allocating doses to One Medical after learning that the company allowed the line to be cut, according to officials from both counties.
One Medical is an association-based concierge service that offers medical care in 12 cities and virtual care 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It expanded from a location in San Francisco in 2007 to more than 72 across the country today.
California currently allows vaccines to be distributed to individuals over the age of 65, as well as to healthcare professionals and other categories of essential professionals, including teachers, emergency responders and farm workers. But initially, many local health departments struggled with a shortage of supplies that made it difficult to expand eligibility beyond the most vulnerable groups, such as people over 75 and health professionals.
In early February, the San Mateo County public health department received complaints from two school districts, claiming that One Medical was vaccinating teachers who were not yet eligible based on state and local criteria, according to Rebecca Archer, Deputy County Counselor at the San Mateo County Office Council.
After investigating the allegations, the county public health department found that One Medical vaccinated 70 ineligible individuals and terminated its contract with the company on February 10, Archer said. It is not clear whether all 70 ineligible individuals who were vaccinated were teachers because One Medical did not clarify, she said.
Alameda County allocated 975 doses to One Medical in late January “so they could vaccinate Phase 1a health professionals who were its members,” according to Neetu Balram, spokesman for the Alameda County Department of Health. . Phase 1a includes health professionals and long-term residents, according to the California Department of Public Health.
The county stopped allocating doses to One Medical, she said, after the company “indicated that it planned to vaccinate more than its health care professionals” – the only approved group prioritized for vaccination at the time, other than long-term residents – in then.
The vaccination distribution problem is probably more widespread, as NPR and Forbes also reported internal documents and interviews with current employees showing that One Medical had allowed ineligible people to skip the line up and down the West Coast.
But One Medical backed off.
“We are disappointed to learn that misinformed rumors are leading to public misunderstandings about our COVID-19 vaccine protocols and, more importantly, challenged our company’s values in our efforts to collaborate with Bay Area health officials to administer COVID- vaccines. 19. We remain committed to serving our communities and hope that any misunderstandings can be cleared up quickly so that we can continue to do this vital job, ”said the spokesman when a Chronicle reporter asked about the complaints last week.
The company did not respond immediately when asked on Wednesday for a response to measures taken by the municipalities of Alameda and San Mateo.
The California Department of Public Health allocates vaccines to “entities from multiple counties,” such as Kaiser Permanente and Sutter Health, and local health departments based on their needs, as measured by current eligibility criteria. To speed up distribution, local health departments – usually at the county level – can contract with healthcare providers like One Medical and local hospitals.
One Medical has signed contracts with several counties in the Bay Area, as it was among the first health providers in the state with infrastructure to administer vaccines, according to a San Francisco Department of Public Health spokesman.
“To its credit, One Medical found this out early,” said Roland Pickens, director of the San Francisco Health Network, who is currently helping the city distribute coronavirus vaccines. The company “had infrastructure to fire weapons quickly,” he said.
One Medical also distributed vaccines in Marin County. Laine Hendricks, a spokesman for the county’s Health and Human Services department, said the agency received an email in late January alleging that One Medical was offering vaccines to people under 65. This age group was not eligible to receive vaccines at the time.
Hendricks said the county is investigating whether One Medical is complying with the terms of its memorandum of understanding, which states it will follow the county’s vaccination policies. So far, an initial review of the data has shown no “obvious signs of irregularities,” said Hendricks.
Santa Clara County gave One Medical about 300 doses to vaccinate its staff health workers, according to a county spokesman. He hasn’t given the company a dose since, but he didn’t cite any wrongdoing as the reason.
Archer, the San Mateo County official, noted that the county had received only one other complaint about inappropriate vaccinations separate from One Medical – and that complaint turned out to be a false alarm.
“I think there are many positive aspects to the vaccine’s history,” said Archer. “It is a pity that this happened with One Medical”.
Susie Neilson and Meghan Bobrowsky are editors of the San Francisco Chronicle. E-mail: [email protected], [email protected].