KEYWORDS:
funding, sustainability, legislation, partnerships
BACKGROUND:
A portion of Oregon's funding is through a voluntary private/public partnership that includes the major health plans and health systems. There is a need to more equitably distribute the operating costs of ALERT to a broader group of stakeholders, and to develop long-term sustainable funding.
OBJECTIVE:
Explain funding strategies, including legislative action, grants, unique fundraising, as well as voluntary commitments from private and public sector partners.
METHOD:
(1) Introduced legislation that would give Oregon the ability to charge for certain services from ALERT for privately insured patients; (2) solicated for voluntary contributions from health plans and hospital systems; (3)conducted innovative fund-raising events to engage private industry vendors in electronic transfer of data from clinic billing systems; (4) used registry data to help target immunization services and support disease surveillance activities.
RESULT:
Legislation has passed major hurdles, and appears to be headed for approval in summer 2003. In 2002 ALERT collected 1/3 of its operational funding needs from voluntary contributions from the private sector. ALERT data is emerging as an importance component of childhood disease surveillance in Oregon. This can draw additional funding through special grants.
CONCLUSION:
Expanding partnerships can help sustain individual funder's commitment, because a broader base of contributors lowers the cost for each contributor. The health insurance industry benefits from registries due to immunization tracking and decreasing the number of duplicative shots. Securing multiple funding streams is an important part of a long-term strategy. Using the data appropriately can be an effective way to draw additional funding, particularly when linked to disease surveillance activities.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Understand how alternative funding strategies combined with legislative action and innovative uses of the data can help sustain immunization registries.
Back to Innovative Immunization Registry Funding Strategies
Back to The 2003 Immunization Registry Conference (October 27-29, 2003)