The New York state Department of Health has opened a criminal investigation into a Brooklyn health provider that allegedly used fraudulent means to acquire more COVID-19 vaccines than it should have been given and administered them to the general public.
The department said it was “aware of reports that Parcare Community Health Network, an Orange County provider, may have fraudulently obtained COVID-19 vaccine, transferred it to facilities in other parts of the state in violation of state guidelines and diverted it to members of the public — contrary to the state’s plan to administer it first to frontline healthcare workers, as well as nursing home residents and staffers.”
“We take this very seriously and DOH will be assisting State Police in a criminal investigation into this matter,” the department said. “Anyone found to have knowingly participated in this scheme will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”
A ParCare spokesperson told the Washington Examiner that it has worked “to provide critical healthcare services and administer COVID-19 vaccinations to those qualified to receive them under the New York State Department of Health’s guidelines, which includes frontline healthcare workers,” adding that the company followed the appropriate procedures obtaining vaccines and was approved by the department for distribution.
“In an effort to fully cooperate with NYS DOH, we have proactively returned the vaccines pending the Department’s review,” the spokesperson said. “We are confident the end result of that review will show that ParCare at all times exerted best efforts to comply with all NYS DOH requirements and will allow us to continue to achieve our number one goal of providing these critical vaccines to the New Yorkers who need them most.”
New York state has reported more than 922,000 cases of COVID-19, the fifth-most of any state. Following the distribution of Pfizer and BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine, New York established a vaccination program that prioritizes healthcare workers, the elderly, and essential workers. So far, the state has administered more than 110,000 vaccines, according to Bloomberg — almost half of them in New York City.
The Washington Examiner reached out to the New York Department of Health and ParCare Community Health Network for further comment.
