Natick vax site to cost state $735G a week
By mid-March, the mass vaccination site at the Natick Mall will be administering 21,000 shots every seven days and costing taxpayers at least $735,000 per week, according to a contract provided to the Herald.
LabCorp, the diagnostics company running the Natick site, will be paid $35 for each shot it administers, driving the cost, according to its contract with the state Department of Public Health.
It adds up to the highest per-week minimum cost outlined by any of the contracts for seven privately run mass vaccination sites provided to the Herald so far. Each contract, however, does indicate the potential for “renegotiation” of per-shot payments at various dates in March.
The state is also on the hook for another $178,150 per month for police details, security, signs and ambulances at the Natick vaccination site.
Gov. Charlie Baker’s decision to hire for-profit companies to operate the state’s seven mass coronavirus vaccination sites has come under increasing scrutiny in recent weeks as complaints about botched rollouts and growing costs pile up, a recent Herald investigation revealed. A special joint legislative commission charged with overseeing the state’s response — and in particular the coronavirus vaccine rollout — has requested information about the vendors and how much they are being paid from the state.
A mass vaccination site at Fenway Park is currently costing taxpayers $540,013 per week. A Gillette Stadium site currently costs $625,440, contracts revealed.
Payments to the various vendors operating the mass vaccination sites are based on expenses and a negotiated per-shot cost.
At two of the three sites run by Curative — at the Eastfield Mall in Springfield, a DoubleTree Hilton hotel in Danvers — the state has agreed to pay $45 per shot — twice the Medicare rate. No minimum weekly cost is included in the Curative contract. The state has failed to provide copies of the Curative contract for a third mass vaccination site at a defunct Circuit City in Dartmouth.
While the contracts provide a snapshot of minimum costs, it’s still unclear exactly how much money the state is shelling out to private companies to run the mass vaccination sites.
State officials have not yet responded to a Feb. 10 records request by the Herald seeking receipts, invoices or other payment information for each of the mass vaccination sites.