The internal committee is investigating One Medical for allegedly allowing customers to cut the Covid vaccine line

A Congressional committee overseeing the Covid-19 crisis has opened an investigation into concierge health care provider One Medical for reports that it administered vaccines to family and friends of executives and wealthy clients who were not yet eligible in their states.

Representative James Clyburn, DS.C., chair of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, sent a letter Monday to One Medical CEO Amir Dan Rubin seeking documents on their vaccine allocation practices.

As the supply of Covid-19 vaccines remains limited, state health departments have rationed doses to priority groups of people, mainly front-line health workers, the elderly and people with medical conditions that put them at risk. In the letter, Clyburn claimed that One Medical in San Francisco “repeatedly and intentionally ignored vaccine eligibility requirements in several cities and states over the past two months.”

One Medical, which has a market capitalization of approximately $ 6.4 billion, offers VIP healthcare services to clients in exchange for an annual fee of $ 199. The company, which went public last year as 1Life Healthcare, operates in nine states and the District of Columbia, according to its website.

“Despite being warned that the company’s lax oversight of vaccine eligibility rules allowed ineligible patients to cross the line, One Medical failed to properly implement an effective eligibility check protocol and instructed staff not to police eligibility. “Clyburn wrote.

“I am deeply concerned that the refusal of health care providers to adhere to the guidelines on vaccination prioritization and intentional dose diversification to people in lower priority groups can cost more lives and delay or even delay the virus’s containment. the country, ”Clyburn wrote.

One Medical officials did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Shares of One Medical fell more than 1 percent on Tuesday morning.

The congressional inquiry comes after NPR obtained internal communications from the company last week, which showed that it routinely allowed wealthy customers and people with ties to company leaders to cut the vaccine line. In some of the cities where One Medical operates, the company has been allocated thousands of doses of rare vaccines, NPR reported.

Complaints about the company prompted regulators, including the Washington State Department of Health, to stop distributing vaccines to One Medical, NPR said.

“These reports raise concerns that the company could exploit the launch of federally funded vaccines to increase membership rates and generate fees, regardless of whether potential taxpayers are actually eligible for vaccination,” Clyburn wrote in the letter to the company.

NPR reported that some health care providers have asked One Medical to change its practice.

“Why are young patients without health problems who are members of the process … allowed to reserve and receive a covid vaccine while health workers are waiting?” asked a doctor in January, according to internal communications obtained by NPR. “I’ve just seen two meetings for such things.”

In response to similar questions, employees were told not to prevent patients from receiving the vaccine.

“If this person is seen at a level that is vaccinated, he can attest to that and set an appointment,” Spencer Blackman, the company’s director of clinical education, said in a note to a doctor, according to NPR. “You don’t have to make the decision if someone ‘receives’ [a] vaccine or not. “