Vaccination Changes

[NOTE: If you are one of my readers who is NOT from Idaho then you probably won't care about this blog. I'm simply writing it to educate some of my fellow Idahoans. Never fear! I will be back to my witty self soon!]


Up until July 1, 2009 Idaho has been a state that has provided universal vaccine coverage for children. What this means is that all vaccines have been purchased by the state and then provided to health clinics to immunize your children. Idaho has pulled funding for state vaccines, which means that this Wednesday the state of Idaho will no longer provide vaccines to families with private insurance coverage. Families will have to be Vaccines for Children (VFC) eligible in order to recieve state supplied vaccines. VFC eligible includes Medicaid patients, uninsured patients, underinsured patients, Alaska natives, and citizens of American Indian descent.

What does this mean for local pediatric offices? Well, offices would have to keep two stocks of vaccine on hand: a state supply, as well as a private stock. They will also have to vigorously screen patients for VFC eligibility. And considering that vaccine costs can leap into the hundreds of dollars PER vaccine, many clinics (including the one with which I am employed) are chosing not to provide a stock of private vaccines.

Why?

Aside from the high cost, which many clinics cannot afford, keeping two sets of vaccine stock will create massive amounts of tedious work in order to keep vaccine lots seperate. Due to the high upfront costs, patients would likely be required to pay for the cost of the vaccination when it is recieved and would be reimbursed by insurance at a later time. Patients who are not VFC eligible will be referred to the Health Department to recieve their vaccinations.

How does that affect you?

You will have to go to two locations, therefore making your visit much more inconvienient. Patients would have to see their regular physician in order to recieve the wellness portion of their visit, and then will have to drive to the health department in order to recieve the immunizations. Obviously this increases personal costs including gas, copays, and time.

It seems that many patients will choose to forego the wellness portion of the examination due to the increased inconvienience. Not only is this unhealthy for your child, Idaho may also see a drop in vaccination rates as patients get "lost in translation" and fail to complete the immunization portion of the exam in a timely manner.

It is also likely that the Health Department will not follow the immunization schedule recommended by your personal pediatrician. This puts more personal responsibility on the parents, as they will have to determine what immunization schedule they would like their child to follow.

Parents will also see an increased responsibility when it comes to their insurance benefits. If your insurance company does not cover immunizations or has a maximum vaccination benefit, you WILL be VFC eligible, because you will be considered "underinsured". Parents will have to know the exact benefits of their insurance, which we all know can be very time consuming and tedious.

Since insurance companies providing coverage to families in Idaho have not had to pay for the cost of vaccines before, it is VERY likely that your insurance premiums will go up in order to offset this new cost (which as I mentioned before can go into the hundreds of dollars). Blue Cross of Idaho has chosen to buy and provide clinics with the vaccinations necessary to immunize families with their insurance coverage, therefore families with Blue Cross WILL NOT be affected by this change. It has been rumored that Riverside Benefit Administrators (St. Luke's) and Pacific Source will also jump on this bandwagon, providing vaccines to their clients.

As this is clearly tedious and frustrating for all parties, I have been tagging this as #idahovaccinedisaster via Twitter.

Check out www.immunizeidaho.com for more information.