{"id":68669,"date":"2020-03-25T13:39:14","date_gmt":"2020-03-25T20:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wikidean.com\/?p=68669"},"modified":"2020-05-31T19:56:24","modified_gmt":"2020-06-01T02:56:24","slug":"coronavirus-testing-sales-by-concierge-doctors-under-review-by-medical-board","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wikidean.com\/?p=68669","title":{"rendered":"Coronavirus testing sales by \u2018concierge\u2019 doctors under review by medical board"},"content":{"rendered":"

By <\/span>Adam Elmahrek<\/a>,<\/span><\/p>\n

Amy Kaufman<\/a>, <\/span>Ben Poston<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

March 23, 2020<\/span><\/p>\n

5:58 PM<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Medical Board of California is looking into physicians selling COVID-19 tests while sick people around the country can\u2019t get tested because of a nationwide shortage, a board spokesman said Monday morning.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The inquiry comes after The Times <\/span>reported <\/a>that \u201cconcierge\u201d doctors who cater to rich people and celebrities have been selling testing to patients and their families, in some cases even if they have no symptoms or any other reason to be tested.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Dr. Jay Gordon, a Santa Monica pediatrician, told clients who purchased the tests for $250 each \u2014 to be taken at home with a cheek-swab and then sent to a lab to process results \u2014 to save the tests until they\u2019re feeling sick. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Gordon said in an earlier interview with The Times that he\u2019s looking out for the best interests of his patients, but acknowledged that his offer represents profound inequality in the American healthcare system. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Gordon said he didn\u2019t believe the medical board would find anything wrong. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey won\u2019t find anything. There\u2019s nothing to be found,\u201d Gordon said. “[Patients] were asking for tests. They were available nowhere else. They remain very much in short supply.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Another physician, Dr. David Nazarian in Beverly Hills, said last week he was planning to open a drive-through for rapid blood tests, shipped from China. He said he would charge patients who use the service about $500 or $600, which would also include a consultation and follow-up as well as help pay for the cost of labor and protective equipment to administer the test.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Nazarian has so far been conducting nasal-swab tests only for patients of his concierge practice, including \u201cinfluential people, A-list celebrities, and CEOs,\u201d if they meet the criteria set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have had a lot of new patients contact us who money wasn\u2019t a factor for; they were willing to pay whatever was needed,\u201d he told The Times last week. \u201cBut we\u2019re not looking at this time in regards to \u2018How can we make more money doing testing?\u2019 or \u2018Who we can charge more to do a test.\u2019 It\u2019s actually really trying to take care of the patients we already have and then figuring out how we can increase testing and do things for the good of the community.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Nazarian told The Times on Monday that he plans to offer the rapid tests only if they are approved by the Food and Drug Administration. <\/span><\/p>\n

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It\u2019s unclear how many doctors are offering such testing or what specifically the medical board is scrutinizing. The spokesman declined to go into detail or say whether the board was looking into any particular doctor, saying only that the agency was aware of The Times\u2019 story and had decided to \u201clook into the matter.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

But state Sen. Richard Pan (D-Sacramento) denounced selling the tests at high prices to whomever can afford them, saying it was unprofessional conduct that the medical board should investigate.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The medical board is charged with investigating complaints against physicians, and can sanction doctors or revoke their licenses for negligent or unethical behavior.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some have also questioned whether the tests being sold are legitimate or effective. The FDA on Friday <\/span>publicly warned<\/a> that it has not authorized any at-home tests for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Federal legislation passed this month would expand access to free COVID-19 testing to the public.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sion Roy, president of the Los Angeles County Medical Assn., said health professionals should use only federally approved tests and testing should be \u201cequally accessible to all Angelenos.\u201d He said his organization would support any measures taken by the state medical board against doctors who sell unapproved tests for exorbitant prices.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you preferentially test one group of people over another, the testing strategy won\u2019t work. Inequitable access to care is not something our association stands for,\u201d Roy said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gordon, who said he charges a concierge fee that averages more than $300 a month, said his business will not be turning a profit on selling the tests and instead will donate all excess funds to the Save the Children charity. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After The Times story published, he texted a reporter a donation receipt for $10,220. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Related articles<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/health\/2020\/03\/19\/nba-players-celebrities-coronavirus-test-access\/<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2020-03-23\/coronavirus-test-rich-poor-doctor<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Adam Elmahrek, Amy Kaufman, Ben Poston \u00a0 March 23, 2020 5:58 PM \u00a0 The Medical Board of California is looking into physicians selling COVID-19…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":68673,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidean.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidean.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidean.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidean.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidean.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68669"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wikidean.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68672,"href":"https:\/\/wikidean.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68669\/revisions\/68672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidean.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/68673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidean.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidean.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidean.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}