MedRite lays off 295 staffers as mobile Covid program ends

BY JACQUELINE NEBER

Urgent care company MedRite has shuttered its mobile treatment program and laid off 295 workers, almost two-thirds of its workforce dedicated to that project, according to a notice filed with the state Department of Labor.

The company took the actions because the city terminated MedRite’s Covid-19 Test to Treat program, according to the filing. MedRite laid off the workers on March 10.

MedRite was founded in 2010 and had 465 employees working on the project, according to the notice. It operates a network of 25 urgent care locations in New York and four in New Jersey. The clinics offer rapid Covid antigen tests, polymerase chain reaction tests and a three-hour PCR viral test that costs patients $225 in the New York area, according to the company’s website.

by the Test to Treat closure were offered the opportunity to interview for roles at urgent cares or on other projects, and some were offered positions, he added.

The city launched the mobile Test to Treat program in June 2022. There are more than 30 mobile units that give New Yorkers the opportunity to get tested for Covid-19 and get Paxlovid medication immediately afterward.

The city has said the Test to Treat

Test to Treat program and is doing so now because community transmission is low. The hospital system will continue to update New Yorkers as the program changes, he added.

Mpox outbreak

As Covid Transmission Levels

Program

Bill Miller, MedRite’s senior vice president of business development, said MedRite is scaling its testing efforts down as the federal Covid-19 emergency comes to an end by May 11. All of the employees impacted program has tested nearly 30,000 New Yorkers since its launch and has prescribed Paxlovid medication to more than 1,000 people. In addition, the New York City Test & Treat Corps has distributed almost 80 million at-home rapid tests to New Yorkers.

Adam Shrier, a New York City Health + Hospitals representative, said that as Covid transmission levels have changed throughout the pandemic, the city has adjusted the

In July MedRite was also part of the city’s plan to treat the mpox outbreak. The city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene had initially contracted with the firm to administer its mpox vaccine supply, but it tapped medical services company Affiliated Physicians instead after patients had issues booking vaccine appointments through MedRite.

Miller said MedRite continues to add employees to its urgent care locations and just opened a new facility in Midtown.

MedRite is the latest firm to wind down Covid operations. In December a Long Island City testing lab filed to shutter and lay off 185 workers. Pandemic Response Lab had also contracted with the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and it notified the department so it could find another lab, the company reported. ■