Here’s another example of how the health care system devalues prevention.
More than 10 percent of pediatric practices failed to provide the full complement of vaccines, mainly because of poor reimbursement. Another factor is the recommended inclusion of newer, expensive vaccines like those protecting against human papillomavirus and meningococcus.
21 percent of family practices has seriously considered to stop providing vaccines altogether. This would impact rural areas the most, since children there rely on family practices for their medical care.
Ensuring appropriate childhood vaccination rates is critical from a public health standpoint. It’s a shame that doing so has to be at the expense of a practice’s financial bottom-line.
topics: vaccines, bankrupt
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- Why doctors lose money providing Gardasil
- Vaccines and autism: The last word
- Recruiting a surgeon to a rural area, it takes more than money
- Improving efficiency and losing money
- Losing the anti-vaccine fight, and what we should do next
{ 4 comments }
This is a big problem.
How dare insurance companies reimburse at lower than the cost of the vaccines. Where the heck is the AMA on this? Silent, of course, probably all in bed with the makers of the vaccines.
I (family medicine) quit giving immunizations more than a year ago because of being reimbursed less than the cost of the shots. Made for several angry parents who transferred to a local pediatrics practice. I hate to see patients transfer out because of something like this. Pediatric practices feel they can make up the difference in volume, but they eventually are going to realize they are being taken advantage of and are losing money in the long run.
Meanwhile, the insurance companies are laughing all the way to the bank. They know that either the doctors pay for a portion of the patient’s health care, or the patient goes to the county health department for the immunizations, which doesn’t cost the insurance anything.
How do adult vaccines fare by comparison?
Little difference between adult and child immunizations; insurance companies don’t want to pay adequately for either. They know that patients’ anger will be directed at the physicians, not the insurance company.
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