The San Francisco-based startup One Medical is the last organization to be called for unethical practices in distributing still very limited supplies of COVID-19 vaccine – allegedly including giving vaccines to friends and family members of the company’s leadership, ineligible patients in 20 and 30 years old, and support team not focused on the patient.
It was inevitable that, as we closed the first year of this pandemic in America without enough vaccine for everyone, there would be many stories of obscurity among those privileged to be cut in line to receive the vaccine. The most recent comes from an investigation by One Medical’s NPR, where leaked internal communications appear to show that the company mismanaged its vaccine allocations in several ways.
A doctor in California and Washington state has been trying to warn colleagues about patients who get vaccines before applying, passing older, vulnerable patients who are still waiting for their turn. The Washington State Department of Health did in fact suspend distribution of vaccine supplies to One Medical due to a complaint it received last month.
In addition, as the NPR reports, One Medical made the decision to give vaccines to all of its San Francisco-based employees, regardless of their role – including, allegedly, IT staff and home-based management staff. Friends and family members of the company’s leadership were also allowed to cut the line, although the evidence from NPR seems anecdotal.
Forbes published a story two weeks ago about One Medical’s alleged practices with the distribution of vaccines, through reports by two anonymous employees.
The company, founded in 2007 and following a trend in medical concierge services, allows members to have quick access to personal and telemedicine consultations for an annual fee of $ 199 and, last year, also sometimes gave members access easier for COVID tests than is widely available in some places. The company went public in 2020 at $ 14 per share, and since then the stock has soared to $ 53, giving it a valuation of around $ 6 billion.
Reports of unethical vaccine distribution have been emerging for more than a month. A remarkable story about the Bom Samaritano Hospital in Los Gatos giving early vaccinations to teachers in the local school district produced a strange story, as Mercury News reported this week, in which the hospital quietly provided the vaccines in exchange for the work they did. the teachers did to raise money for the food program for the hospital staff last year.
During the first two weeks of January, according to NPR, One Medical was administering vaccines through consultations on its website, without asking a question about a patient’s eligibility – the question about someone’s eligibility was not added to the consultation portal until January 14. And a company employee reportedly sent a directive telling employees that it was not their job to do any “policing” of patients’ eligibility.
“Why are young patients with no health problems on a test … allowed to book and receive a coveted vaccine while healthcare professionals are on the waiting list?” asked a medical professional in a leaked e-mail obtained by NPR. “I just saw two appointments for that.”
A Washington state doctor sent a similar email saying that “they had two [patients] today, both in their 20s and 30s with no risk factors and are tech workers who got their coveted vaccines. One went through us. “
It is estimated that 12,000 doses of vaccine have so far been administered to One Medical in San Francisco County. The San Francisco Department of Public Health issued a curious statement to the NPR saying that One Medical was “primarily engaged in providing vaccines for home support services … and healthcare professionals”, in other words, not for any patient population in general. “SF DPH expects all of its vaccine supply partners to follow the state’s vaccination eligibility and SF DPH guidelines,” the department said.
One Medical issued statements refuting NPR reports, saying it never “knowingly” distributed any vaccine to someone who was not eligible.
Medical director Andrew Diamond said in a statement, “There was never any guidance that said ‘don’t check’ … that would be contrary to our principles.” But when NPR reporters showed that they had internal communications suggesting otherwise, he replied, “That is clearly not the direction, nor is the intention of the guidance. We have been much clearer since then.”
“We are doing absolutely everything in our power to vaccinate as many eligible people as possible,” Diamond continued, blaming the “fog of war” and several “conflicting jurisdictional guidelines and deep public anxieties” for any possible errors in the eligibility check.
So it’s now late February and vaccine supplies are tight across California. Imagine the tsunami of stories that awaits us as these next phases of eligibility create even more ways to falsify a person’s eligibility – including the phase that begins on March 15 when it is up to doctors to determine the patient’s underlying condition qualifies.
Photo courtesy of One Medical