Federal auditors target vaccine injury program amid surprise Oxaro office visit
The federal government has launched a compliance audit to determine if an Ottawa consulting company is mismanaging the Vaccine Injury Support Program (VISP), and Public Health Agency of Canada officials made a surprise visit to the firm’s offices in mid-June, Global News has learned.
A five-month-long Global News investigation of the VISP program triggered the audit and downtown Ottawa office visit by PHAC officials to check the consulting firm’s work managing thousands of vaccine injury claims filed by Canadians, according to a confidential source familiar with the matter.
Staff from the Public Health Agency of Canada conducted a visit to Oxaro/VISP offices in downtown Ottawa on June 17. That was after Global started asking questions about program administration by its hired consultants and sent letters seeking comments.
Oxaro’s five-year funding agreement with PHAC is up for renewal next year and the audit raises the possibility that the company could see a shorter contract extension, or not have it renewed at all if it does not pass the compliance audit. The government could also strengthen Oxaro staffing and training requirements.
The confidential source said that PHAC officials will continue to visit Oxaro’s VISP offices “on short notice and in-person to ensure that performance standards are met.”
Global News agreed to not identify the source because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the site visits or compliance audit, though they are familiar with details about them.
PHAC spokesman Mark Johnson confirmed the surprise June 17 Oxaro office visit by agency staff.
“PHAC has initiated the process for a compliance audit of the Oxaro-administered VISP,” he added.
Oxaro did not respond to an emailed request for comment about the audit and site visit.
The Vaccine Injury Support Program was created during the COVID-19 pandemic’s early days.
The effort was designed to support and compensate people who have been seriously and permanently injured by any Health Canada-authorized vaccine administered in Canada on or after Dec. 8, 2020.
The federal government invited companies and non-profits to submit proposals to administer the program in early 2021 and compete for a five-year contribution agreement to fund the effort.
Oxaro vowed it had the “people, processes, and tools” to run the initiative with “industry best practices.” PHAC subsequently picked Oxaro to administer the program.
But the Global News investigation into the program, involving more than 30 interviews with current and former Oxaro employees, injured claimants and their attorneys, uncovered complaints that VISP has failed to deliver on its promise of “fair and timely” access to financial support.
Part 1 of the investigation revealed:
- Oxaro Inc., has received $50.6 million in taxpayer money. $33.7 million has been spent on administrative costs, while Canadians injured by vaccine shots during the COVID-19 pandemic have received only $16.9 million.
- PHAC and Oxaro underestimated the number of injury claims VISP would get, initially predicting 40 per year and then up to 400 valid claims annually. More than 3,000 applications have been filed — of those, 1,700 people are still waiting for their claim to be decided.
- Some injured applicants say they face a revolving door of unreachable VISP case managers and fundraise online to survive.
- Some said their applications were unfairly rejected by doctors they’ve never spoken to or met.
- Despite decades of calls for a vaccine injury support program, the federal government cobbled it together during a pandemic.
Part 2 of the investigation uncovered allegations that Oxaro was unequipped to deliver fully on the program’s mission and raised questions about why PHAC chose this company over others.
Global News also revealed internal documents suggesting VISP fell short due to poor planning from the start.
Global News also heard descriptions of a workplace that lacked the gravitas of a program meant to assist the seriously injured and chronically ill: drinking in the office, ping pong, slushies and Netflix streaming at desks. Some workers said the office distractions had improved in recent months, and emphasized that they had done their best with the resources they were given.
One worker added that: “I don’t think anyone actually understood the severity or the relevance of the program that was being contracted to the firm.
“I think they (injured claimants) were merely names on paper and nothing more than that.”
In a previous response to Global News, Oxaro stated: “The VISP is a new and demand-based program with an unknown and fluctuating number of applications and appeals submitted by claimants.”
“The program processes, procedures and staffing were adapted to face the challenges linked to receiving substantially more applications than originally planned,” Oxaro added. “Oxaro and PHAC have been collaborating closely to evaluate how the program can remain agile to handle the workload on hand while respecting budget constraints.”
The company declined to comment on statements by its former workers.
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