189041 Financing Immunizations in the USA

Tuesday, October 28, 2008: 12:55 PM

Guthrie S. Birkhead, MD, MPH , Deputy Commissioner, Office of Public Health, NYS Department of Health, Albany, NY
     
Since 2000, 6 new vaccines and additional doses of previous vaccines have been recommended for routine use in children and adolescents up to age 19 years in the US. The cost to purchase the full series of vaccines has increased to over $1100 for boys and over $1600 for girls at the Federal contract price. Non-vaccine related costs of providing immunizations have also increased. There is concern that both private medical providers and public programs supplying vaccines will be unable to fully incorporate the newly recommended vaccinations and that vaccine coverage levels and the potential for disease prevention will suffer. With the goal of assuring that all children and adolescents have access to all recommended vaccines without financial barriers, a working group of the National Vaccine Advisory Committee (NVAC) including many stakeholder groups has developed a set of recommendations to address these vaccine financing issues. This presentation will cover the current status of vaccine financing and the recommendations of the NVAC.

Learning Objectives:
1. Attendees will understand three financial barriers to access to routine vaccinations for children and adolescents in both the public and private medical sectors. 2. Attendees will understand the major recommendations for both the public and private sectors to remove financial barriers to access to routine vaccinations. 3. Attendees will understand the pros and cons of various approaches to removing financial barriers to access to routine vaccinations.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Chair of National Vaccine Advisory Committee Vaccine Financing Workgroup
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

See more of: Current Issues in Immunization
See more of: Epidemiology