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Three counties in the San Francisco Bay Area have suspended the supply of coronavirus vaccines to a San Francisco-based health care provider whose procedures allowed ineligible people to cut the line, people said. local officials.
The company, One Medical, is no longer receiving vaccines from San Francisco, San Mateo or Alameda counties, and San Francisco health officials said on Wednesday they had ordered One Medical to return more than 1,600 doses.
When asked about its practices in the Bay Area last week, officials at One Medical said that accusations that the company knowingly ignored eligibility guidelines “are in direct contradiction to our current approach to administering medical care. vaccines ”.
At the start of the vaccine rollout, counties assigned doses of the vaccine to One Medical after the company demonstrated it could distribute them effectively. The company offered free trials of its $ 199 membership program to people who wanted to sign up for the vaccine.
But this month, officials from the San Francisco Department of Health asked One Medical to provide information on how it administers COVID-19 vaccines after receiving complaints that ineligible San Franciscans were being vaccinated .
The company’s response indicated that people who did not meet the state’s vaccine eligibility criteria at the time had been vaccinated.
“Because of this and our inability to verify (eligibility) of this cohort, DPH has stopped assigning doses to One Medical,” a spokesperson for the health department said in an email on Wednesday.
Five days after One Medical responded to the Department of Health’s investigation, Jonathan Sears, deputy director of vaccine operations for the COVID-19 command center in San Francisco, ordered the company to return 270 vials of Pfizer vaccine – containing 1620 doses – which she had listed as “registered for other uses.” “
San Mateo and Alameda counties also stopped assigning doses to One Medical after learning the company had authorized line cutting, officials from both counties said.
One Medical is a membership-based concierge service that offers medical care in 12 cities and 24/7 virtual care. It has grown from one location in San Francisco in 2007 to more than 72 across the country today.
California currently allows the distribution of vaccines to people over 65, as well as healthcare workers and other categories of essential workers, including teachers, emergency responders and agricultural workers. But initially many local health services struggled with supply shortages that made it difficult for them to expand eligibility beyond the most vulnerable groups, such as those over 75. and health workers.
In early February, the San Mateo County Public Health Department received complaints from two school districts alleging that One Medical was vaccinating teachers who were not yet eligible based on local and state criteria, according to Rebecca Archer, chief counselor. of San Mateo County. Advice.
After investigating the allegations, the county public health department found that One Medical had vaccinated 70 ineligible people and terminated its contract with the company on February 10, Archer said. It is not known whether the 70 ineligible people who got vaccinated were teachers because One Medical did not clarify, she said.
Alameda County allocated 975 doses to One Medical at the end of January “so that they could vaccinate the phase 1a health workers who were their members,” according to Neetu Balram, a spokesperson for the County of Health Department. ‘Alameda. Phase 1a includes healthcare workers and long-term care residents, according to the California Department of Public Health.
County has stopped allocating doses to One Medical, she said, after the company “said it plans to vaccinate more than its health workers” – the only group approved as a priority for vaccinations. at the time, with the exception of long-term care residents – then.
The issue of vaccine distribution is likely more prevalent, as NPR and Forbes also previously reported internal documents and interviews with current employees showing One Medical let ineligible people skip the line along the West Coast. .
But One Medical pushed back.
“We are disappointed to learn that uninformed rumors lead to misconceptions about our COVID-19 vaccination protocols and, more importantly, we have challenged our company values in our efforts to collaborate with Bay Area health officials to administer COVID-19 vaccines. We remain committed to serving our communities and hope that any misconceptions can be quickly dispelled so that we can continue to do this vital work, ”the spokesperson said when a Chronicle reporter asked them questions last week. .
The company did not immediately respond when asked on Wednesday for a response to actions taken by Alameda and San Mateo counties.
The California Department of Public Health allocates vaccines to both “multi-county entities” like Kaiser Permanente and Sutter Health and local health departments based on their needs, calculated using current eligibility criteria. To speed up distribution, local health departments – usually at the county level – can contract with health care providers like One Medical and local hospitals.
One Medical has contracts with several Bay Area counties because it was among the first health care providers in the state to have the infrastructure to administer vaccines, according to a ministry spokesperson. of San Francisco Public Health.
“To their credit, One Medical got it early on,” said Roland Pickens, director of the San Francisco Health Network, which is currently helping the city distribute vaccines against the coronavirus. The company “had an infrastructure to quickly get shots fired,” he said.
One Medical also distributed vaccines in Marin County. Laine Hendricks, a spokesperson for the county’s health and social services department, said the agency received an email in late January claiming One Medical was offering vaccines to people under 65. This age group was not eligible to receive vaccines at the time.
Hendricks said the county is looking into whether One Medical is following the terms of its memorandum of understanding, which says it will follow county vaccination policies. So far, an initial review of the data has not shown “clear signs of wrongdoing,” Hendricks said.
Santa Clara County has given One Medical about 300 doses to immunize health workers on its staff, according to a county spokesperson. He hasn’t administered doses to the company since, but has not cited any wrongdoing as a reason.
Archer, the San Mateo County official, noted that the county had only received one other complaint about inappropriate vaccinations separate from One Medical – and that complaint turned out to be a false alarm.
“I think there are a lot of positives in the history of vaccines,” said Archer. “It’s a shame that this happened with One Medical.”
Susie Neilson and Meghan Bobrowsky are editors of the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected], [email protected].
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