Trends That Matter for COVID Vaccine Distribution

January 4, 2021

As details continue to emerge about the availability of COVID-19 vaccines and how they will be administered, the role that payers will play in the process is becoming clearer, AIS Health reported.

It’s imperative for health plans to do two key things at the same time, according to Katherine Dallow, M.D., the vice president of clinical programs and strategy at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. Payers need to help the entities that will be distributing the vaccine to identify the individuals who should be first in line to be vaccinated, and they need to use their resources to help educate the community.

“We might be able to put a puzzle together that an individual provider or group may not have,” she said during a Nov. 18 National Institute for Health Care Management (NICHM) Foundation webinar. “Data from many sources should be used to ensure those who are most vulnerable are ID’d per federal and state guidelines. We can see where folks have seen three different doctors, used telehealth and gone to urgent care.” Read more here.