"If you don’t have docs on the go, then you have a retro thinking of healthcare," Mayor Eric Adams told investors of DocGo last year, weeks after the company that specialized in COVID testing during the pandemic received a $432 million no-bid contract from his administration to provide services to migrants.
But it turns out that hiring a company known for providing "docs on the go" to oversee the care of asylum seekers is a bad idea.
On Tuesday, Politico reported that the Adams administration will not renew its contract with DocGo to oversee the care of 1,800 migrants based in New York City. An existing vendor, Garner Environmental Services, will pick up DocGo's slack until a new vendor is found when the contract ends May 5.
DocGo, which has been found to waste thousands of meals in a single day, has been accused of employing unlicensed security guards who threaten the people they are supposed to be taking care of, and whose CEO resigned after being caught lying about his education, will keep its contract to house migrants in hotels upstate through the end of the year. Meanwhile, Attorney General Letitia James's investigation of DocGo's conduct, prompted by the slew of investigations by New York Times reporter Jay Root, is ongoing.
"We are working with the comptroller on a temporary extension for the upstate DocGo hotels to ensure we are not disrupting children in school and are not leaving our upstate partners without proper notice," Adams's Chief of Staff Camille Joseph Varlack told Politico in a statement.
City Comptroller Brad Lander, who retroactively rejected DocGo's no-bid contract (Adams pushed it through anyway) and withdrew the mayor's power to approve emergency deals with migrant providers in December, said he was "relieved."
"After months of warnings about the selection of this vendor and its performance, I’m relieved that the Administration finally came to its senses," City Comptroller Brad Lander said in a statement.
"While I am glad to see the Administration shift away from DocGo, we continue to be concerned more broadly about the costly emergency contracts the City is using to staff services for asylum seekers," Lander continued. "Our recent review of these contracts found the replacement contractor, Garner, to be extremely expensive. Our office will watch closely to ensure that asylum seekers do not see a lapse in services and urges the City to issue an open-ended transition to non-profit organizations to avoid paying for-profit companies millions more than necessary."
More links to scrutinize on this Wednesday:
