For all we complain about the inefficiencies of publically owned and run services, sometimes we’re reminded that private, for-profit companies really cannot do it better.
West Virginia has one of the best vaccination programs in the nation. The teamwork among county health departments, area hospitals, universities and local governments is inspiring. The process may still feel too slow to some, and there may still be some flaws, but we can take comfort that we didn’t make Philadelphia’s mistake.
Back in late December/early January, Philly outsourced its vaccination process to a private start-up that had been making PPE. According to NPR, Philly Fighting COVID began as a nonprofit that 3D printed face shields and organizing city-funded COVID testing sites, staffed by self-described scientists, engineers and computer scientists (notably, without any background in health care). When PFC’s 22-year-old CEO, Andrei Doroshin presented a plan to the City of Philadelphia to allow his organization to spearhead the vaccination process, the city gave him the greenlight, funneled thousands of their federally paid for doses to PFC and gave the organization tons of free publicity.
Unfortunately, Philadelphia’s trust in the private company was misplaced.
Before the city agreed to his plan, Doroshin quietly created a for-profit arm of PFC, called Vax Populi, to run the vaccination sites with the intent to make millions in profit. Since vaccine doses were paid for by the federal government and provided to the cities for free, they cost PFC nothing. But Doroshin planned to make money by charging an administrator’s fee to insurance companies, around $24 per dose, according to NPR. The new for-profit also wrote into its terms of agreement that the company could sell patient data. As one former volunteer told NPR-affiliate WHYY: “They were bragging about how rich they were going to get.”
Once PFC was entrusted with the vaccines, the company abandoned its planned testing sites, leaving community partners in the lurch, particularly in minority communities. Then it failed to collect demographic data, to ensure minority communities were receiving their fair share of doses. Then it started turning seniors away. Then, after turning people away, staff would be told to call friends and family to come get the excess vaccines. And then, the CEO grabbed a handful of doses to take home to give to friends and family himself.
So Philadelphia learned the hard way that public health should not be left in the hands of for-profit business.
Because that seems to be a common misconception: That private businesses can always provide a service cheaper, faster and more efficiently than any government-run program. Philadelphia and West Virginia have proved this theory wrong, though in different ways. West Virginia, for its part, has shown how a government-led vaccination effort cannot only perform well, but positively excel. Part of it is in the collaboration among government bodies at different levels and with publically funded entities, such as the universities and hospitals. But a key factor in our success has been the focus on people — keeping people safe, helping life get back to normal, eliminating COVID — not on making money. When a program’s purpose is to help people, for-profit business is rarely the right choice.
