Three counties in California have stopped giving coronavirus vaccines to a medical company accused of helping people cut the line.
Health care provider ‘Concierge’ One Medical reportedly offered COVID-19 injections to senior management, service customers and staff members who were not on the front lines.
Health officials in San Francisco, San Mateo or Alameda counties say they will no longer send immunizations to One Medical units.
In addition, the San Francisco health department asked One Medical to return more than 1,600 doses of the injection, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
One Medical has denied claims and claims that helping patents to be vaccinated before high-risk populations ‘are in direct contradiction to our real approach to administering the vaccine’.
It comes in the wake of several anecdotal stories across the United States, which also involve people skipping vaccine lines and confusion about who it is. responsible for enforcing eligibility.
San Francisco, San Mateo or Alameda counties are no longer sending doses of COVID-19 vaccine to One Medical locations (above)
The concierge health care provider is accused of allowing people to cut the line and get punched in front of high-risk patients. In the photo: Yin You Chen, 75, receives the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine from registered nurse Cristy Michel in Los Angeles, California, February 24
At the same time, many eligible health professionals who tried to make appointments for vaccines were put on a waiting list, while the average daily vaccinations reached 1.2 million per day
One Medical, headquartered in San Francisco, calls itself a health care provider with a concierge.
Concierge medication, also known as containment medication, is when a patient pays an annual fee or waiver and receives improved care, or more access to doctors, in return.
For an annual fee of $ 199, patients have easy access to scheduling appointments online and consulting doctors through telemedicine.
After going public in January 2020, One Medical’s shares have increased 126 percent in the past 12 months, according to Market Watch.
Currently, the state allows people aged 65, health professionals and some essential professionals to receive the vaccine.
But onen The NPR investigation found that California residents with leadership in the company – such as family and friends – were able to schedule vaccination appointments.
At least one executive from a One Medical partner organization also received an appointment while healthcare professionals were on the waiting list.
Examples of the 8 million Californians who were vaccinated include people linked to One Medical’s senior management, customers of its services and team members who were not on the front lines
One Medical denied the allegations and said it did not allow ineligible residents to receive vaccines. Less than 14% of all Americans received at least one dose
In addition, concierge service customers who did not meet the vaccine’s eligibility requirements were allowed to jump ahead of high-risk patients, NPR found.
All members of the One Medical team, including many who were not on the front lines, such as administrative members who work from home, support staff and IT technicians, also received the injection.
Internal communications leaked to NPR show that several One Medical employees were alarmed by the lack of adherence to the state and local health department’s vaccine eligibility guidelines.
‘It looks like if you don’t filter those who are jumping [queue], so many will get in line and push those who need the vaccine even further back, delaying a potentially life-saving injection, a California doctor wrote to his colleagues.
‘It could impact MANY members.’
Patients were even offered to participate in free trials if they wanted to apply for vaccines.
‘Why are young patients with no health problems on a test … allowed to book and receive a coveted vaccine while health professionals are on the waiting list? a medical professional wrote in January, according to NPR.
– I just saw two appointments for that.
It is not clear how many ineligible doses of vaccine were given, and One Medical refused to tell NPR how many total doses it had administered.
One Medical did not immediately return DailyMail.com’s request for comment.
However, in a statement to Market Watch, the company denies having helped ineligible patients to cut the vaccine line.
“Any claim that we largely and consciously ignore the eligibility guidelines is in direct contradiction to our real approach to administering the vaccine,” the statement said.
‘Recent media reports about One Medical perpetuate dangerous public misunderstandings about our COVID-19 vaccine protocols and, more importantly, challenged our company’s values in our efforts to collaborate with health officials across the country to administer COVID- vaccines. 19.
‘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 launch, we remain committed to serving our communities and hope that this report does not impede our ability to keep doing this vital job, ‘
One Medical adds that 96 percent of those vaccinated at their clinics had proof of eligibility, while the remaining four percent “were vaccinated according to zero waste protocols”.
