NYC was charged up to $2.4K per COVID vax at some locations due to poor oversight

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NYC Health Department was charged up to $2.4K per COVID vax at some locations due to poor oversight: audit

By Nolan Hicks
July 4, 2023

Poor oversight by New York City’s Health Department allowed an outside vendor to dramatically overstaff vaccination and testing sites during the COVID crisis, leading to a multi-million dollar cash grab, a new audit by the City Comptroller reveals.

The investigation revealed that the company, Executive Medical Services PC, was allowed to set its own staffing levels for its sites and then billed DOH based on a formula that included staffing levels, removing key oversight and cost controls.

That meant that the all-in costs for each test administered by EMS fluctuated wildly from an average of $202 to $937 per site, based entirely upon how busy the staff was.

There was an even bigger spread in costs for vaccination, where the average cost per shot ranged from $169 to $2,423 depending on the site and how busy it was.

“While the audit recognizes that DOHMH was responding to an unprecedented pandemic situation, effective cost-management was not incompatible with DOHMH’s overarching mission, and indeed, is an essential part of emergency preparedness,” wrote the comptroller, Brad Lander, in a letter.

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Source:  https://nypost.com/2023/07/04/nyc-health-department-was-charged-up-to-2-4k-per-covid-vax-at-some-locations-due-to-poor-oversight-audit/