Vaccination vouchers

The coalition, now in its ninth year, comprises the Springfield-Greene County Health Department, Greene County Medical Society, CoxHealth, St. John’s Health System and Doctors Hospital.

The coalition’s clinics, expected to be held in mid-October, will be followed by a week-long clinic by the Greene County Medical Society and the health department, Rogers said. Vouchers are available beginning Oct. 8 at the Health Department and Oct. 10–11 at Jordan Valley Community Health Center or Southwest Missouri Office on Aging.

Officials hope vouchers will help avoid a replay of last year, when seniors were inconvenienced while seeking the vaccine.

“They were all getting at the facility so early in the morning, it was dark out, a couple of the mornings it was cold and raining, and we thought (the vouchers) would help them not feel the need to do that,” said Pam Pittman, Springfield-Greene County Health Department’s administrator of maternal, child and family health. “The vouchers will have the clinic they’re supposed to be at and the time they’re supposed to be there.”

Who’s at risk?

High-risk adults can pick up their own vouchers or have someone pick up the voucher on their behalf. No identification or paperwork is required when picking up vouchers, but a Medicare card will be required at the clinic.

“A high-risk adult is one that is over 65 years of age, has a health problem that they’re going to the physician for, whether it’s related to heart or respiratory or chemotherapy or diabetes, any of those chronic health problems,” Pittman said.

“Or if they’re a caregiver of somebody that’s high risk, they need to get immunized.”

The cost

“We don’t say it’s free,” Pittman said of the immunizations and the vaccine. “We say there’s no out-of-pocket cost because with that Medicare card the hospitals and the health department do try to get Medicare reimbursement on the vaccine itself.”

The amount reimbursed by Medicare for each vaccination varies by state but is around $18, according to the Medicare Web site, www.medicare.gov.

The coalition is supported by donations, Rogers said. Vaccine comes from the health department, Cox, St. John’s and Doctors Hospital.

“Greene County Medical Society provides collaboration, and they provide support services. The schools of nursing that come from both Cox and St. John’s, and other people within all of those partnership organizations, provide staffing to help make this work,” Rogers said.

The flu, Pittman said, is easily spread from person to person, so one sick person could infect many.

“Every year there’s approximately 36,000 people that die from flu-related illness or the flu itself in the United States. Those are just the deaths, then a lot of folks get sick and if they’re already a senior or with a, chronic health problem, it can complicate those conditions and make them more compromised,” she said.

Help line

Details about the community flu vaccination clinics and the voucher system are available on the flu hotline at (417) 864-1166.

The community flu vaccination clinics, Rogers said, are to help those who don’t have a physician or find it inconvenient to make the trip to the physician’s office.

“We encourage everyone, including the people who would come to this, go to your doctor’s office and get it first. This is for a safety net for the community. If you have a doctor’s office and a relationship and they have the vaccine, go get it there. That way it’s recorded, it’s done, you continue that relationship with your health care provider,” Rogers said, adding that he doesn’t anticipate a shortage of vaccine.

“We have a couple of suppliers of vaccine so it’s not going to be as short as last year. We don’t really expect to have a significant shortage where we have to do what we did last year, but we’re still trying to prioritize first-tier high risk,” he said.

The coalition

Rogers said the coalition was formed due to needs that weren’t being served.

“We really felt like there were a lot of opportunities for immunizing high-risk patients,” Rogers said, adding that there were inconsistencies with immunizations being offered at grocery stores, churches and businesses one year but not the next.

“We’d rather not have a need for the coalition,” Rogers said. “If we thought that every office was giving it and everybody was getting their shot, we’d just say, ‘We don’t need to do this. We’ve worked ourselves out of a job. Everybody that needs one’s getting one.’ But we know that’s not true, so we’re trying to provide this as an extra safety net and aim it at (people who are) high-risk.”