Slow & Steady Wins the Race—Illinois Immunization Summit: a First Step in Identifying and Addressing Challenges Associated with Vaccine Financing

Background:
Primary goal of the immunization summit coordinated by the Illinois Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (ICAAP) was to identify financing challenges in the Illinois pediatric immunization delivery system and develop a plan to address challenges with end result being improved and enhanced access to, and reimbursement for, the availability and delivery of vaccines to the pediatric population.
Representatives from Illinois-based insurance companies, Medicaid managed care, public health officials, vaccine manufacturers, and medical societies attended the summit.

Setting:
This session will describe current challenges in vaccine financing in Illinois including: underinsurance; non-timely reimbursement; inadequate coverage for all vaccine and non-vaccine costs; vaccine ordering, storage, and handling; vaccine administration; and Medicaid reimbursement for vaccine administration. The session will summarize immunization summit recommendations and discuss ICAAP experiences and challenges in this arena through a strategy of assembling key state stakeholders.

Population:
Illinois Pediatricians.

Project Description:
The session will describe ongoing activities occurring as a result of the summit including development of vaccine financing workgroup to address ongoing vaccine financing issues. Workgroup initiatives include: Illinois Vaccine Work Practices survey focusing on gathering information from Illinois pediatric practices to assess total costs, including labor and overhead costs, of provision of vaccinations to patients.
Additional initiatives:
Evaluation of Illinois Medicaid reimbursement rates for vaccine administration to determine adequacy in covering non-vaccine costs associated with vaccine administration.
Identifying and engaging large employer groups to discuss importance/value of insurance plans covering vaccines and vaccine administration costs.
Investigating partnerships with Group Purchasing Organizations available to Illinois physicians

Results/Lessons Learned:
After this presentation participants will be able to:
•Review key issues in vaccine financing and delivery systems nationally and in states.
•Describe Illinois immunization summit and discuss identifying, engaging key stakeholders in development of strategy for addressing state-specific vaccine financing challenges.
•State specific learnings and challenges from planning, coordination, implementation of state immunization summit.