San Diego County health officials have cut ties with a local vaccine supplier after allegations that he was distributing COVID-19 injections to ineligible patients.
One Medical Group, a member-based health practice in San Francisco, operates offices across the country, including here in San Diego County, and county officials said it was soon allowed to distribute vaccines locally. But the county said it stopped as soon as it found that the group was acting as “an association payment mechanism”.
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“We learn [One Medical] it was operating as a payment institution for members and immediately reported them to the state, ”said a spokesman for the San Diego County Department of Health and Human Services.
The Medical Director of One Medical has vehemently denied any wrongdoing with respect to the vaccine provider’s efforts.
“All claims that we largely and consciously ignore the eligibility guidelines are in direct contradiction to our real approach to administering the vaccine,” a statement from Medical Director Andrew Diamond, MD, read in part. “Recent media reporting on One Medical perpetuates dangerous public misunderstandings about our COVID-19 vaccine protocols.”
An NPR investigation published on Wednesday found internal communications from One Medical staff members raising questions about the national provider not policing eligibility requirements closely for members seeking COVID-19 injections through the provider’s website. The NPR found that “patients who were disqualified from receiving the vaccine were, however, allowed to skip the queue in front of other high-risk patients.” (NBC 7 Investigates has not independently reviewed the internal communications reported by NPR.)
NBC Bay Area reports that the San Francisco Department of Public Health, along with a list of other state and local health departments, stopped distributing vaccines for health care after receiving individual complaints that the provider vaccinated ineligible patients.
San Diego County officials told NBC 7 that they had allowed One Medical to distribute vaccines here locally “in the beginning” in their vaccination efforts.
Authorities said One Medical had ordered 2,000 vaccines, but the county had only given 900 doses. The county emphasized that the authorities going forward will no longer allocate vaccines to the health care provider.
San Diego County officials said they had reported One Medical to the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) for further investigation.
One Medical’s office in downtown San Diego.
A doctor did not say how many of the 900 allocated doses were distributed locally.
The health provider’s medical director defended his actions, telling reporters that he did not “knowingly vaccinate ineligible patients”.
“Patients don’t have to pay to be vaccinated at One Medical. As we did with the COVID-19 test, we opened access to the One Medical technology platform for patients, with no membership fees, to provide equitable access to vaccine markings, ”says a statement. “We routinely refuse people who do not meet the eligibility criteria.”
One Medical went on to say that, according to its data, 96% of individuals who were vaccinated by One Medical in the USA have the eligibility documentation filed with the healthcare provider and the remaining 4% “were generally vaccinated according to zero waste. ”
The spokesman added that One Medical’s online platform requires patients to confirm their eligibility for the vaccine, with “multiple checkpoints in place – online at the time of booking the appointment, prior to the appointment via an intensive ‘scheduling scan’ process and in person verification at the point of care, as needed – to mitigate the abuse of our vaccine reservation system ”.
(To read One Medical’s full statement for NBC 7 Investigates, click here.)
According to the One Medical website, the health care provider is not “an ordinary doctor’s office”, offering patients a primary care subscription for $ 199 a year. Subscribers receive service 24 hours a day through on-demand services, says the website. Patients who do not wish to pay the membership fee can also subscribe to the free services offered by the provider.
But when it comes to COVID-19 vaccines, the provider said that adherence is not a requirement.
“Most of the individuals vaccinated by One Medical in the United States are not our own annuity paying members, but have been referred by health departments, including healthcare professionals, nursing home patients, educators and homeless people,” said Diamond.
When users attempt to register for vaccination appointments in San Diego, One Medical now claims that the consultations are “Not available at the moment … We are working with local health authorities to obtain additional vaccines as soon as possible” .
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Internal communications published by NPR found within the walls of One Medical, officials have given alarms for months about the application of eligibility requirements for patients seeking vaccines.
NPR reported that these communications included a member of the One Medical team who wrote: “I have doubts about our approach of not requiring [patients] to bring proof of vaccine eligibility … A quick Google search indicates that this is not consistent with the requirements of many states. I am concerned with announcing an overly permissive approach. “
One Medical contested several elements of the NPR’s reports and told the media that it has since “fired several members of its clinical staff for failing to comply with the eligibility requirements”.
Diamond told NBC 7, despite the reports, the provider is still committed to the community it serves.
“While this type of report is disheartening for our team members who have worked tirelessly nights and weekends dealing with the complexities and challenges of vaccine implantation, we remain committed to serving our communities and hope that this report does not impede our ability to continue doing this vital job, ”says a statement.
But another state found problems with One Medical and stopped distributing vaccines to the provider.
The Washington State Department of Health told NPR that it received a complaint about One Medical on February 10 and “stopped distributing the COVID-19 vaccine to the company”.
Back in California, San Mateo and Alameda counties also confirmed with the NBC Bay Area on Thursday that they will no longer distribute vaccines to the provider. San Mateo County health officials said the move was due to a complaint received. Alameda County officials said they had stopped distributing vaccines for One Medical “after learning that the practice was planning to vaccinate more than its health care professionals”.
In Los Angeles County, Public Health officials have confirmed to NBC 7 that they continue to work with One Medical and, to date, have allocated more than 5,800 doses to the company.
LA officials said they also received a complaint about One Medical and, in response, issued a warning to the healthcare provider.
“We received a report in late January that someone who was not a health professional was vaccinated and Public Health accompanied them and asked them to explain their process,” says a statement from Los Angeles County. “Public Health made it clear that it must validate whether the people who are vaccinating are HCW or those over 65 years old at the time of the consultation or we cannot assign them more doses. We no longer receive complaints. ”
The California Department of Public Health did not respond to requests for comment on any pending investigations.
A spokesman for the state Medical Council confirmed that One Medical Group and its Medical Director Andrew Diamond have not faced any state disciplinary action, according to a review of license history dating back to 2004.
Diamond told NBC 7 that he has not been contacted by any state or local health department regarding any active complaints or investigations.
“We have not been informed by any of our health department partners that there are current or pending investigations underway,” Diamond told NBC 7 on Friday. “As is the case with other major health care providers, it is common for a health department to ask about any concerns raised to them. This is by no means exclusive or specific to One Medical. “
To learn more about vaccination efforts in San Diego County, including how eligible patients can make an appointment, Click here to the county website.