San Mateo County and Alameda County say they have stopped allocating additional vaccines to One Medical, a national SF-based healthcare practice, the county investigation unit confirmed on Thursday.
One Medical is a national healthcare provider, with patients paying $ 199 to become new members. On Wednesday, our team reported that the San Francisco County Department of Public Health (SFDPH) sanctioned One Medical for vaccinating ineligible patients and planning unauthorized vaccination events, such as walk-ins and the mass launch of Oracle Park.
I received this information after I asked SFDPH about the reports I received about taxpayers just to take advantage of the vaccine organization’s easy-to-book scheduling system.
Read: SF penalizes a doctor for vaccinating ineligible patients
On Thursday, a San Mateo County spokesman sent a statement saying the county had received a complaint and found One Medical used vaccines to vaccinate 70 ineligible people. The county immediately stopped offering One Medical vaccines on February 5, wrote the spokesman and terminated the agreement with the practice.
In response, the company said in a statement that “in good faith – they vaccinated a group of public school teachers who were referred to One Medical by their school’s superintendent.”
Alameda County officials said in late January that they had allocated hundreds of sleepers to One Medical, but after learning that the practice planned to vaccinate more than their health workers, they stopped distribution.
On Thursday, One Medical said it had not received any information that it was not receiving future benefits from Alameda County. NBC Bay Area contacted county officials for clarification.
“The problems with One Medical have been disappointing, but they are not representative of the county’s robust and successful vaccination efforts,” San Mateo County officials said in a statement.
In response to county sanctions, One Medical issued a statement saying: “Those we vaccinated in the indeterminate“ number ”of doses in question from [San Francisco Department of Public Health] they specifically certified that they were eligible medical workers. ”
“We had permission from SFDPH to vaccinate this group and we were transparent with SFDPH about our process and protocols for doing so,” said One Medical. “We are proud of the firm dedication of our team to do everything possible to save lives at this critical time.”
Candice Nguyen is an investigative reporter at NBC Bay Area. Email her about this story or others at [email protected]