Home Science One Medical Let People Jump The Line For Covid-19 Vaccines

One Medical Let People Jump The Line For Covid-19 Vaccines

One Medical Let People Jump The Line For Covid-19 Vaccines

In recent weeks, two employees of primary care firm One Medical with direct knowledge of the practice shared with Forbes that the company has not been enforcing state guidelines in distributing Covid-19 vaccines. Both employees asked to remain anonymous for fear they would lose their jobs. 

Current state of California guidelines require that anyone requesting vaccination during phase 1a of its program, which allows it for healthcare workers and those over 65, must provide identification proving they qualify. But, employees say, One Medical has been allowing people who say that they are healthcare workers to get vaccinated without proof of identification. The result is people slipping through the cracks, able to lie about their status as healthcare workers in order to receive a vaccine. 

San Francisco-based One Medical is a healthcare company that provides primary care for its members, who pay a $199 annual fee. The company went public last year at $14 a share. Since then, its telemedicine capabilities have propelled the stock up to $54, giving it a market cap of over $6 billion. The company’s president and CEO is Amir Dan Rubin, a former executive at Optum who joined the company in 2017. 

MORE FROM FORBESNearly 8% Of U.S. Population Has Been Vaccinated-But Data Show Stark Disparities

One Medical has opened Covid-19 vaccination in sites in several states across the U.S., including California, Washington, Illinois and New York. In California, residents can use Department of Public Health websites to sign up for a vaccination after clicking a button that says they are a healthcare worker. The vaccination sites are charged with verifying a patient’s status by checking identification, which can include pay stubs, professional license, or an employee photo ID. While many clinics in the area enforce these rules, even going so far as to turn away people who lack credentials, One Medical reportedly has not. 

While the company doesn’t advertise the loophole, an employee told Forbes that if a patient shows up for an appointment, “the policy is still we do not turn them away.” Internal communications reviewed by Forbes confirm this was a practice encouraged by at least one manager in the company. This has resulted in stress for staff, as well as worries that people are gaming the system for their own gain. 

In response to queries about this practice, a company spokesperson did not directly deny any violation of state guidelines, telling Forbes: “One Medical is equally dedicated to both its adherence to state and local department of health vaccine eligibility guidelines and to the judicious use of each and every vaccine dose we have been allocated.”


“If you make it too easy” to jump the line, he says, “that’s clearly a system error.” 


In recent weeks, there have been many stories of Americans attempting to “jump the line” and get a Covid-19 vaccine before state and local guidelines allow it. Wealthy business people have flown to other states and attempted to bribe doctors, and other people have loitered outside of clinics in the hopes of scoring leftover doses. One major hospital in the Bay Area reportedly took matters into its own hands to defy state guidelines by vaccinating teachers before the elderly; its supply of vaccines was suspended as a consequence. 

Bioethicists are divided about whether these practices are unethical. Barbara Koenig, a medical anthropologist at the University of California San Francisco, says that she doesn’t advocate breaking the rules, but “the more shots get in arms, the more people benefit.” She points out that some clinics may be in a situation where vials of vaccine could go to waste, but “everyone will benefit from herd immunity” if they’re distributed to more people. She also adds it’s not always clear who belongs in what category. “Whether you’re a healthcare worker or not is pretty ambiguous,” she says. “I think it’s probably enough to ask people to define that themselves.”

Other scientists say that institutions should share part of the responsibility for enforcing guidelines. “Asking people for ID is pretty minimal, in terms of bureaucracy and paperwork,” says Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at NYU. That being said, he adds, “I don’t think the criteria should lead to waste or loss of vaccine.”

The One Medical spokesperson told Forbes that depending on the location of a clinic, extra available doses of vaccine will either go to people on a Department of Public Health waiting list or go to One Medical customers who meet eligibility criteria.

“I don’t think you should let those [vaccines] go to waste,” agrees David Magnus, a bioethicist at Stanford, “but even there I think there are ways you could equitably give them out.” Magnus points out that clinics could have waiting lists of hospital workers or nursing home residents who haven’t yet gotten a vaccine in case there are extra doses available. “If you make it too easy” to jump the line, he says, “that’s clearly a system error.” 

Despite these complications, other California clinics have taken firmer stances than One Medical. Claudia Soto, director of communications & development at East Valley Health Center in Southern California, says that the clinic has had to turn away “a lot” of people who come to get vaccines without the proper identification. She said that her guess would be about 12% of people who registered to get a vaccine via the department of public health website weren’t actually healthcare workers. With a waitlist hundreds of healthcare workers long, those people were quickly shown the door. She’s sympathetic to those who decide to vaccinate the fakers anyway, though. “Their hearts are in the right place,” she says. 

When asked why One Medical isn’t similarly turning away incorrectly-booked patients, an employee says that it was likely partly to prevent vaccine spoilage, and also partly to prevent bad PR. But not adhering to the rules has put more stress on clinic workers, they say. “We are getting calls and messages from patients saying their family/friend got a vaccine here (not always by the proper means/workflows), how can they?”

This article is auto-generated by Algorithm Source: www.forbes.com

Related Posts

0

Ad Blocker Detected!

Refresh