April 27, 2009
CHANGE IN STATE VACCINATION POLICY
The State of Idaho has provided vaccinations free of charge for all Pediatric patients for many years. Due to budget shortfalls, they will now be restricting this to only patients who qualify as Medicaid recipients or are under-insured. As of July 1st, we will have to provide vaccinations for insured patients and will also have to bill for them.
Unfortunately, the cost of these vaccinations is high. For instance, the one year vaccines, at our cost, will be about $200. We recognize that this will be a problem for some of our patients. Many of our insured patients will find that their insurance will cover these costs but we ask that you find out. With many different insurance companies, each having many varying plans, there’s no way that we can tell you whether your insurance company will cover immunizations. Please call them to confirm this as soon as possible. We’ll do our best to be efficient in the billing process but can’t carry balances on these vaccines. It will quickly get too expensive.
Some patients may choose to go to District 7 Health for immunizations. This is fine but they will charge you as well and won’t be able to bill insurance like we can. We hope that it will be to your advantage, medically and economically, to get your immunizations here at the same time as your well child checks.
Our nurse in charge of vaccinations is Jenna. Please call if you have questions.
SWINE INFLUENZA
We are following the progress of swine flu a long with everyone else. Please continue to watch the CDC Influenza site. Our best advice is that if you or anyone in your family develops high fevers, body aches, and cough, please let us know. We need to examine the patient and send them for testing through Madison Memorial Hospital.
Isolation is the key concept to keep from spreading the virus. Stay home from work, school, church, and activity.
March 2009
For those how are despairing at the state of the American health care system, The Heritage Foundation has an interesting article titled 10 Surprising Facts About American Health Care.
CHANGE IN STATE VACCINATION POLICY
The State of Idaho has provided vaccinations free of charge for all Pediatric patients for many years. Due to budget shortfalls, they will now be restricting this to only patients who qualify as Medicaid recipients or are under-insured. As of July 1st, we will have to provide vaccinations for insured patients and will also have to bill for them.
Unfortunately, the cost of these vaccinations is high. For instance, the one year vaccines, at our cost, will be about $200. We recognize that this will be a problem for some of our patients. Many of our insured patients will find that their insurance will cover these costs but we ask that you find out. With many different insurance companies, each having many varying plans, there’s no way that we can tell you whether your insurance company will cover immunizations. Please call them to confirm this as soon as possible. We’ll do our best to be efficient in the billing process but can’t carry balances on these vaccines. It will quickly get too expensive.
Some patients may choose to go to District 7 Health for immunizations. This is fine but they will charge you as well and won’t be able to bill insurance like we can. We hope that it will be to your advantage, medically and economically, to get your immunizations here at the same time as your well child checks.
Our nurse in charge of vaccinations is Jenna. Please call if you have questions.
SWINE INFLUENZA
We are following the progress of swine flu a long with everyone else. Please continue to watch the CDC Influenza site. Our best advice is that if you or anyone in your family develops high fevers, body aches, and cough, please let us know. We need to examine the patient and send them for testing through Madison Memorial Hospital.
Isolation is the key concept to keep from spreading the virus. Stay home from work, school, church, and activity.
March 2009
For those how are despairing at the state of the American health care system, The Heritage Foundation has an interesting article titled 10 Surprising Facts About American Health Care.