San Diego County health officials have severed ties with a local vaccine provider on charges of distributing COVID-19 shots to ineligible patients.
A medical group, a San Francisco-based health care office, operates offices across the country, including here in San Diego County, and county officials said it is briefly allowed to distribute vaccines locally. But the county said it stopped once it discovered the group was acting as “a unit of payment for the member.”
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“I learned [One Medical] it functioned as a payment for the membership facility and immediately reported to the state, ”said a spokesman for the San Diego County Department of Health and Human Services.
The medical director of a doctor vehemently denied any wrongdoing when it comes to the vaccination provider’s efforts.
“Any claims that we generally and knowingly ignore eligibility guidelines are in direct contradiction with our actual approach to vaccine administration,” read a statement from Medical Director Andrew Diamond, MD. “Recent media reports of One Medical perpetuate dangerous misconceptions about our COVID-19 vaccine protocols.”
An NPR investigation released on Wednesday found internal communications from One Medical staff members raising questions that the national provider was not closely complying with eligibility requirements for members seeking COVID-19 shootings through the provider’s website. NPR found that “patients who were disqualified from receiving the vaccine were still allowed to cross the line in front of other high-risk patients.” (NBC 7 Investigates did not independently review NPR’s internal communications.)
NBC Bay Area reports that the San Francisco Department of Public Health, along with a list of other state and local health departments, have stopped allocating vaccines to medical practice after receiving individual complaints that the provider vaccinated ineligible patients.
San Diego County officials told NBC 7 that they allowed One Medical to distribute vaccines here locally “on time” in their vaccination efforts.
Officials said One Medical requested 2,000 vaccines, but the county gave them only 900 doses. The county stressed that officials who will continue to no longer allocate vaccines to the health care provider.
San Diego County officials said they reported One Medical to the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) for further investigation.
One Medical Center in downtown San Diego.
A doctor would not say how many of the 900 allocated doses were distributed locally.
The medical director of the healthcare provider defended his actions, telling reporters that he did not “knowingly vaccinate ineligible patients.”
“Patients do not have to pay to get vaccinated at One Medical. As we did with the COVID-19 test, we opened access to the One Medical technology platform for patients, without membership fees, in order to provide equitable access to vaccination schedules “, it is shown in a communiqué. “We usually remove people who do not meet the eligibility criteria.”
One Medical went on to say that according to their data, 96% of people who have been vaccinated by One Medical in the US have eligibility documentation on the healthcare provider’s file, and the remaining 4% “were generally vaccinated according to the protocols zero waste. ”
The spokesman added that One Medical’s online platform requires patients to confirm their vaccine eligibility, with “numerous checkpoints installed – online at the time of booking the appointment, before scheduling through an intensive” program scan “process. work and in- checking the person at the point of care, as necessary – to mitigate the abuse of our vaccine reservation system. ”
(To read One Medical’s full statement to NBC 7 Investigates, click here.)
According to the One Medical website, the healthcare provider “is not a regular doctor’s office”, offering patients a primary care member for $ 199 per year. Subscribers benefit from non-stop assistance through on-demand services, it is shown on the site. Patients who do not wish to pay the membership fee can also sign up for the free services offered by the provider.
But when it comes to COVID-19 vaccinations, the provider said membership is not a requirement.
“Most people vaccinated by One Medical in the US are not our members who pay annual dues, but have been sent from health departments, including health care workers, nursing home patients, educators and the homeless,” he said. Diamond.
When users try to sign up for vaccination appointments in San Diego, the One Medical website states that the appointments are “Currently unavailable … We are working with local health officials to get additional vaccines as soon as possible.”
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Internal communications published by NPR were found inside the walls of One Medical, employees sounded alarms for months about the application of eligibility requirements for vaccine-seeking patients.
NPR reported that these communications included a One Medical staff member who wrote: “I have questions about our approach to not requiring [patients] to prove vaccine eligibility … A quick Google search indicates that this is not in line with the requirements of many states. I am concerned about the publicity of an overly permissive approach. “
One Medical disputed several elements of NPR’s reporting and told the media that it has since “fired several members of its clinical staff due to non-compliance with eligibility requirements”.
Diamond told NBC 7, despite reports, the provider is still engaged in the community it serves.
“While this type of reporting is daunting for our team members who have worked tirelessly nights and weekends to cope with the complexities and challenges of vaccine launch, we remain dedicated to serving our communities and hope that this report will not stop us from continuing to do this vital work “, it is shown in a statement.
But another state discovered problems with One Medical and stopped allocating vaccines to the supplier for distribution.
The Washington State Department of Health told NPR that it received a complaint about One Medical on February 10 and “discontinued the distribution of COVID-19 vaccine to the company.”
Back in California, San Mateo and Alameda counties also confirmed on Thursday with NBC Bay Area that they will no longer allocate vaccines to the provider. San Mateo County health officials said the move was due to a complaint he received. Alameda County officials said they stopped allocating vaccines to One Medical “after learning that the practice planned to vaccinate more than their health care workers.”
In Los Angeles County, public health officials confirmed to NBC 7 that they continue to work with One Medical and have so far allocated more than 5,800 doses to the company.
LA officials said they also received a complaint about One Medical and responded to the health care provider with a warning.
“I received a report at the end of January that they vaccinated someone who was not a health worker, and public health followed them and asked them to explain the process,” a statement from Los County said. Angeles. “Public health has made it clear that it must validate that the people it vaccinates are HCW or people who are over 65 on the spot at the time of scheduling or we cannot allocate more doses to them. I have not received any complaints. ”
The California Department of Public Health has not responded to requests for comment on any pending investigations.
A spokesman for the state medical council confirmed One Medical Group, and its medical director Andrew Diamond did not face any state disciplinary action according to a review of its 2004 license history.
Diamond told NBC 7 that he has not been contacted by any state or local health department regarding complaints or active investigations.
“We have not been informed by any of our health partners’ departments that there are current or ongoing investigations,” Diamond told NBC 7 on Friday. As with other large health care providers, this is common for a department. ask your health about any concerns reported to them. This is in no way unique or specific to One Medical. ”
To learn more about vaccination efforts in San Diego County, including how eligible patients can book an appointment, click here for the county website.