March 3, 2021
A health care company doing business in San Diego County may face repercussions in the coming weeks, as a congressional committee that oversees the COVID-19 pandemic opened an investigation into reports that it administered vaccines to wealthy people who were not eligible to receive them.
One Medical, a member-based primary care provider, is headquartered in San Francisco, but has units in Carlsbad, downtown San Diego and La Jolla. The company’s patients pay an annual fee of $ 199 for VIP health services.
Representative Jim Clyburn, D-South Carolina, chairman of the House Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, sent a letter on Monday evening to Amir Dan Rubin, CEO and president of One Medical.
“Prioritizing vaccination of Americans at greater risk of contracting the coronavirus is critical to saving lives and controlling the pandemic, as vaccine manufacturing and distribution increase,” wrote Clyburn.
“However, reports indicate that One Medical has repeatedly and intentionally disregarded vaccine eligibility requirements in several cities and states over the past two months – diverting vital doses of the vaccine from vulnerable populations to benefit wealthy concierge clients and friends. and family members of your company’s executives who are not eligible under state and local guidelines. “
Clyburn cited several reports of problems with the company.
The committee is demanding information from the company on its vaccination practices by the March 15 deadline. Clyburn also wants a demographic breakdown of the vaccinated population and how many vaccines have been administered by the company.
San Diego County spokesman Michael Workman said the county had provided around 900 doses of vaccines – both the first and the second – but stopped after “numerous complaints” of charging members to receive the vaccines. The company initially ordered 2,000 doses.
The company denies the charges.
“You don’t have to be a member of One Medical and no payment is required to be vaccinated,” says a company statement.
As for the leaps in eligibility, a company spokesman also denies them, blaming much of the blame on media coverage.
“Any claim that we largely and consciously ignore the eligibility guidelines is in direct contradiction to our real approach to vaccine administration,” wrote Andrew Diamond, medical director at One Medical. “We have several checkpoints in place – online at the time of booking the appointment, prior to the appointment through an intensive” scheduling check “process and personal verification at the point of care as needed – to mitigate abuse of our vaccine reservation system We routinely refuse people who do not meet the eligibility criteria.
“Our data currently shows that 96% of individuals vaccinated by One Medical have documentation of eligibility and the remaining 4% have generally been vaccinated according to zero waste protocols.”
Workman said these complaints were reported to the California Department of Public Health and the county currently has no plans to resume supplying vaccines with One Medical. Other jurisdictions across the country have also stopped distributing the COVID-19 vaccine with the company.
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