Legislation
Immunization Initiative
What's New
- Legislative Alert
- Upcoming Immunization Initiative meeting
- Save The Date
- Vaccine Availability Table, Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) Immunization Program.
- 2008 Annual Survey of Massachusetts Health Plans on their Immunization Benefit Policies and Reimbursements for Vaccines
- The 2009 Childhood & Adolescent Immunization Schedules
- Multiple Vaccines VIS
- Influenza
- Archived Presentations from the Annual MIAP Conference October 2, 2008
- MCAAP Position Paper on Universal Vaccination for Children in Massachusetts
- Pediatric Immunization Codes
- Implementing the New Vaccine Administration Codes by Massachusetts Health Care Organizations
Upcoming Immunization Initiative Advisory Committee Meetings
The next meeting Date: Not scheduled
All Immunization Initiative meetings are held at the Massachusetts Medical Society:
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Waltham Woods Corporate Center
860 Winter Street
Waltham, MA 02454
If you wish to join the Advisory Committee contact Hadassa Kubat by phone: (781) 895-9850, or e-mail: hkubat@mms.org
Legislative Alert - Please Support legislation aimed at solving an ongoing problem of funding vaccines for children in Massachusetts.
The proposed legislation will create a “Vaccine Purchase Trust Fund”, which will offer a permanent solution for state immunization funding. The fund will be financed by federal sources, state appropriations, and contributions from insurance companies. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health would continue to purchase all the pediartic vaccines at lower federal prices. The bill would also revive and fund the state's Immunization Registry which is critical to the efficient coordination, management, and oversight of vaccine distribution in the state, and would provide also the essential information infrastructure needed for natural disasters and communicable disease emergencies.
Please click here to read more about this legislation: Background information; Summary of the legislation; and the Text of the Proposed Bill.
Vaccine Availability Table
The 2008 Annual Survey of Massachusetts Health Plans on their Immunization Benefit Policies and Reimbursements for Vaccines
Each year the Immunization Initiative conducts a survey of Massachusetts Health Plans about their reimbursement policies for privately purchased vaccines which are not provided by the MDPH. This year's survey included the following questions:
- Does your plan reimburse Providers for all the ACIP recommended vaccine products when these are not supplied by MDPH? Please list all the sections of your plan for which your response does not apply.
- Does your plan reimburse providers for the actual acquisition cost of vaccines?
- Does your plan reimburse for more or less than the private sector published vaccine products prices?
(http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/programs/vfc/cdc-vac-price-list.htm) - What is the billing procedure for vaccine products?
- Does your health plan pay for the administration of vaccines? (CPT codes 90465-68 and 90471-73)
- Are immunizations, vaccine products and/or administration included in the deductibles? Please list the sections of your plan for which your response applies.
- Does the information provided in your responses apply to the subsidized Commonwealth Care Connector plans?
The responses were tabulated in two files, which are available by clicking on:
Massachusetts Health Plans' Immunization Reimbursement Policies - Summary of Responses 2008
and on
Massachusetts Health Plans' Reimbursement for Vaccines - Summary of Responses January 2008
Posted on February 25 2008
Multiple Vaccines VIS
A multi-vaccine VIS has been added to the NCIRD website, and may be downloaded now at:
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/vis/downloads/vis-multi.pdf
This VIS may be used as an optional substitute for any or all of the routine birth-6 month vaccine VISs. (DTaP, IPV, Hib, PCV, Hepatitis B, and Rotavirus) See VIS News. It is an optional alternative to the individual VISs, which, of course, may still be used.
Posted on February 1, 2008
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Influenza Vaccine
Links to Influenza Vaccination Recommendations
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, Flu Web Site
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/
Influenza Web Site, MDPH
http://www.state.ma.us/dph/cdc/epii/flu/flu1.htm
Model Standing Orders - Influenza Vaccine, MDPH
Inactivated: http://www.mass.gov/dph/cdc/mso/inactivated_flu.pdf
Live Attenuated: http://www.mass.gov/dph/cdc/mso/laiv_flumist.pdf
Influenza vaccine available for (private) purchase
A website sponsored by the National Influenza Vaccine Summit and hosted by the American Medical Association (AMA) lists vaccine distributors, their contact information and the type of influenza vaccine they have available. http://www.preventinfluenza.org/ivats/ivats_07_08.xls
Archived Presentations from:
The Thirteenth Annual Massachusetts Immunization Action Partnership Skills Building Conference, October 2, 2008
Slides available as downloadable Adobe Acrobat (.PDF) files
To download click on the presentation's title
Immunizations in Massachusetts
- Susan M. Lett, MD, MPH
Vaccine Safety
- Ronald Adler, MD
What's New? National Immunization Update
- William L. Atkinson, MD, MPH
Vaccine Preventable Disease Epidemiology
- Noelle Cocoros, MPH
Flu Recommendations
- Mary Conant RN, BSN
How to Vaccinate all These Kids (Flu Recommendations)
- Harriet Sanclamente, NP
Tips for Immunizing Children: LOTS of Children (Flu Recommendations)
- Barbara Westley, RN
National Vaccine Distribution: Lessons Learned and a Look towards Flu Season
- Robert W. Morrison
Vaccines for International Travel
- Lawrence Madoff, MD
MCAAP Position Paper on Universal Vaccination for Children in Massachusetts
The Massachusetts Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics wrote a policy paper urging the Commonwealth legislature to support the funding of all ACIP & AAP recommended vaccines, and to maintain universal immunization for all children in our state. Please print this document and share it widely with your colleagues, parents and all who care about health of children. Click on the title: MCAAP Position Paper on Universal Vaccination for Children in Massachusetts and open a printer friendly PDF file.
2009 Childhood & Adolescent Immunization Schedules in various formats including downloadable immunization schedules into handhelds are posted on the NIP Web site:
http://www.cdc.gov/nip/recs/child-schedule.htm
Pediatric Immunization Administration CPT Codes
Implementing the New Vaccine Administration Codes by Massachusetts’ Health Care Organizations
Most but not all plans incorporated the new codes into their billing systems, and are reimbursing on these codes.
Click here to view detailed information and the responses of each of the surveyed plans.