San Mateo County and Alameda County have stopped assigning additional vaccines to One Medical, an SF-based national health practice, the investigation unit confirmed with the counties 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) has penalized One Medical for vaccinating ineligible patients and scheduling unauthorized vaccination events, such as walk-ins and a massive Oracle Park vaccination.
We received this information after we asked SFDPH about reports we received from people paying the fee just to take advantage of the organization’s easy-to-book vaccination appointment system.
Read: SF punishes one doctor for vaccinating ineligible patients
On Thursday, the San Mateo County spokesman sent a statement saying the county had received a complaint and found that One Medical was using vaccines to vaccinate 70 ineligible people. The county immediately stopped providing One Medical vaccines on Feb. 5, the spokesman wrote, ending the agreement with the practice.
In response, the company said in a statement that it had “in good faith – vaccinated a group of public school teachers who had been referred to One Medical by their school inspector.”
Alameda County officials said in late January that they had assigned hundreds of naps to One Medical, but after learning that the practice planned to vaccinate more than their health workers, they discontinued distribution.
“The problems with One Medical were disappointing, but 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 within the unspecified ‘number’ of doses in question of the [San Francisco Department of Public Health] specifically stated that they were eligible for health professionals. “
“We had permission from the SFDPH to vaccinate this group and were transparent to SFDPH about our process and protocols for doing this,” said One Medical. “We are proud of our team’s unwavering commitment to doing our best 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]