Healthcare company One Medical gave COVID-19 vaccines to people who were not eligible under local guidelines, including friends and family members of the company’s leadership, NPR reported. Washington and California health departments said they stopped distributing doses to One Medical after discovering that the company did not meet the eligibility rules.
The company received doses of vaccine in some states, including Washington and California. Internal messages obtained by NPR show that doctors raised concerns about patients skipping the vaccination line before people who had the highest priority for injections. Now Alameda County, California and the Washington State Department of Health refuse to give the company more doses.
In many states, older people or those with underlying health problems can be vaccinated now; younger, healthier people still have to wait. One Medical did not check whether people who applied for vaccines through its systems were actually eligible, officials said.
“Why can young patients with no health problems, on a test … be able to book and receive a coveted vaccine while healthcare professionals are on the waiting list?” a medical professional asked in January in messages obtained by NPR.
One Medical, which was supported by Alphabet’s GV, offers primary care to members in about a dozen cities in the United States for an annual fee of $ 199. The company went public in January 2020; as of today, its market capitalization is $ 7 billion. The company said NPR which does not allow people to intentionally skip the queue.
The company’s vaccine scheduling system did not ask people to confirm whether they were eligible under local guidelines until January 14, two weeks after One Medical started offering the vaccines. Once He asked, people who said they were not eligible could still make appointments. Preventing people from signing up would be very technologically difficult, the company said.
“Checking schedules and canceling appointments [for ineligible patients] is not recommended, ”said Spencer Blackman, the company’s director of clinical education, in a message to employees obtained by NPR. Andrew Diamond, medical director at One Medical, initially denied NPR that the team was instructed not to verify eligibility. He later said that One Medical has communicated more clearly since then.
After receiving complaints, the Washington State Department of Health stopped distributing COVID-19 vaccines to One Medical. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health warned One Medical that it would stop giving doses to the company if it did not confirm patients’ eligibility for the vaccine. Alameda County, Calif., Said it did not give One Medical additional doses after the company said it wanted to vaccinate people who were not eligible.