Three California counties STOP giving coronavirus vaccines to health care provider accused of helping people cut the line - including its own staff who WEREN'T on the front lines
- San Francisco, San Mateo or Alameda counties are no longer sending COVID-19 vaccine doses to One Medical locations
- The 'concierge' health care provider is accused of allowing people to cut the line and receive jabs ahead of high-risk patients
- Examples include people connected with upper management, customers of its service and staff members who were not on the front lines
- At the same time, many eligible healthcare workers who attempted to book appointments for the shots were waitlisted
- One Medical has denied the allegations and says it did not allow ineligible residents to receive vaccines
Three California counties have stopped giving coronavirus vaccines to a medical company accused of helping people cut the line.
'Concierge' health care provider One Medical allegedly offered COVID-19 shots to those connected with upper management, customers of its service and staff members who were not on the front lines.
Health officials from San Francisco, San Mateo or Alameda counties say they will no longer be sending immunizations to One Medical locations.
Additionally, the San Francisco health department has asked One Medical to return more than 1,600 doses of the shot, reported the San Francisco Chronicle.
One Medical has denied the allegations and claims that helping patents be vaccinated ahead of high-risk populations 'are in direct contradiction to our actual approach to vaccine administration.'
It comes on the heels of several anecdotal stories throughout the U.S. that also involve people skipping vaccine lines and confusion over who is responsible for enforcing eligibility.
San Francisco, San Mateo or Alameda counties are no longer sending COVID-19 vaccine doses to One Medical locations (above)
The 'concierge' health care provider is accused of allowing people to cut the line and receive jabs ahead of high-risk patients. Pictured: 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 healthcare workers who attempted to book appointments for the shots were waitlisted, while average daily vaccinations have plateaued at 1.2 million per day
One Medical, whose headquarters are based in San Francisco, has branded itself as a concierge health care provider.
Concierge medicine, also known as retainer medicine, is when a patient pays an annual fee or retainer and receives enhanced 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 via telemedicine.
After going public in January 2020, shares of One Medical increased by 126 percent over the last 12 months, according to Market Watch.
Currently, the state allows people aged 65, health care workers and certain essential workers to received the vaccine.
But an NPR investigation found that California residents with company leadership - such as family and friends - were able to schedule vaccine appointments.
At least one executive of an organization that partners with One Medical also received an appointment while healthcare workers were waitlisted.
Examples of the 8 million Californians who've been vaccinated included people connected with One Medical upper management, customers of its service and staff members who were not on the front lines
One Medical has denied the allegations and says it did not allow ineligible residents to receive vaccines. Less than 14% of all Americans have received at least one dose
Additionally, customers of the concierge service who did not meet vaccine eligibility requirements were allowed to jump ahead of high-risk patients, NPR found.
All staff members of One Medical, including many of whom were not on the front lines, such as work-from-home administrative members, support staff and IT technicians, were also offered the shot.
Internal communications leaked to NPR show that multiple employees of One Medical were alarmed about the lack of adherence to state and local health department vaccine eligibility guidelines.
'It seems if you don't screen out those jumping the [queue], then many will jump in the line and push those that need the vaccine further behind, delaying a potentially life saving injection, one California doctor wrote to his colleagues.
'This could impact MANY members.'
Patients were even offered free trial memberships if they wanted to sign up for vaccinations.
'Why are young patients without health problems, on a trial membership...allowed to book and receive a covid vaccine while healthcare workers are being waitlisted?' one medical professional wrote in January, according to NPR.
'I just saw two appointments for such.'
It is unclear how many ineligible vaccine doses were given out, and One Medical declined 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 that it helped ineligible patients cut the vaccine line.
'Any assertions that we broadly and knowingly disregard eligibility guidelines are in direct contradiction to our actual approach to vaccine administration,' the statement read.
'Recent media reporting about One Medical perpetuates dangerous public misconceptions about our COVID-19 vaccine protocols and, more importantly, has impugned our company values in our efforts to collaborate with health officials across the nation to administer COVID-19 vaccines.
'Although this type of reporting is disheartening to our team members who have worked tirelessly nights and weekends dealing with the complexities and challenges of the vaccine roll out, we remain committed to serving our communities and hope that this report does not impede our ability to continue doing this vital work,'
One Medical adds thats 96 percent of those vaccinated at its clinics had proof of eligibility while the remaining four percent 'were vaccinated in accordance with zero wastage protocols.'
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