California provinces that have refused to sign up to California’s new Blue Shield COVID-19 vaccination program are expected to reach a separate agreement with the state instead to end a stalemate that threatens gunfire. to delay.
Paul Markovich, president of Blue Shield, said Friday that provinces are concerned about the signing of the contract for the distribution of vaccines with a private company, which was a requirement for all vaccine providers who wanted to receive doses in California under the new program. A California Department of Public Health spokeswoman confirmed the change.
“They feel much more comfortable with an agreement with the state, which we believe is good, as long as there is an agreement that they will participate in the performance management system that enables us to deliver the performance in our contract,” Markovich said in said a statement. link with reporters Friday. “It just has to be good.”
Markovich said the agreement between the state and provinces is expected to be finalized soon to prevent ‘disruption’. It is unclear what changes will be made in a memorandum of cooperation between provinces and the state, and how this may differ from the terms of the contract that Blue Shield initially required.
Provinces are embroiled in a week-long stalemate with the state and Blue Shield over California’s decision to make vaccine vaccination decisions to the private insurance company. Los Angeles County officials were the last to ask to withdraw the Blue Shield contract, highlighting concerns about outsourced distribution oversight.
As of Friday, only Kern County has signed a contract with Blue Shield and Markovich said he expects all other provinces to sign directly with the state. Markovich said the change has no bearing on the allocation of vaccines, in which the state sets priorities on which the insurance company bases its algorithm to determine where doses should be sent. Under the revamped vaccine program managed by Blue Shield, the awards are also made based on the effective vaccine providers to administer shots.
This setup bypasses the previous state system in which doses sent to the state by the federal government are distributed among provinces and provinces and then determined where doses should go.
“The state, as part of the transition to a system where the state allocates vaccines directly to specific providers, is working with provinces to finalize the language to commemorate their continued role as vaccine providers,” said Darrel Ng, a communications adviser to COVID- in California, said. 19 Vaccination Task Force. “We look forward to continuing with provinces to vaccinate Californians fairly and effectively.”
Gavin Newsom’s government announced in January the significant changes to California’s vaccine system after widespread criticism that the state was going too slow with vaccinations. The Newsom administration has named Blue Shield as the independent supervisor of the network of COVID-19 vaccine suppliers in California, and the governor said the private insurer will streamline the state’s fragmented system and provide more efficient distribution, speed and equity and will create vaccine transparency ‘.
According to the insurance company, 92 vaccine suppliers have signed the contract with Blue Shield to operate more than 1300 vaccine sites across the state.
The state has signed a separate agreement with Kaiser Permanente, which allows the healthcare system to oversee its own distribution of doses at additional vaccine sites, independent of Blue Shield’s oversight.
It is unclear what will happen if a country refuses to sign the Blue Shield contract or a memorandum of understanding with the state, but it could lead to local public health agencies being cut off in the areas of future vaccines. In that case, vaccines will still be available in the country through other suppliers, such as pharmacies, hospitals or clinics that have signed the contract with Blue Shield.
Blue Shield is expected to take full management responsibility for the nationwide network by March 31st. Meanwhile, provinces will continue to receive vaccinations, regardless of whether they have signed agreements with the state or Blue Shield.
Newsom characterized some of the backlash from provinces as a natural aversion to change, but local government officials said changes in the midstream would cause a stir in the vaccine distribution system.
“I think all of the counties at this point feel like they have really strong public health departments that have a lot of experience and knowledge about setting up and implementing vaccination programs,” Barbara Ferrer, director of public health in Los Angeles County, said Tuesday.
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Hilda Solis and Pro Tem chair Holly Mitchell have called for the province to be released from Blue Shield’s supervision in a March 2 letter to Newsom. They wrote that Blue Shield officials “have not shown that they have a sufficient understanding of the unique needs and characteristics of Los Angeles County, the diverse population and where our residents go for health care.”
Santa Clara County has said it does not intend to sign a direct contract with Blue Shield. Ventura County also asked the state to sign up for the new system.
Barry Zimmerman, chief deputy director of the county’s health care agency, said state and Blue Shield officials told Ventura County it was not an option to shut down. In addition, the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors requested that the county’s attorneys examine options to exclude the “tremendous bureaucratic system” that supervisors would implement under Blue Shield.
The contract with Blue Shield has caused concern since it was first sent to vaccine suppliers. The University of California’s health system said the initial contract with Blue Shield envisages an extensive amount of medical data. The system signed the contract after changes were made.
The state requires provinces to use its My Turn appointment system, which has been plagued by complaints over the past two weeks about problems and compatibility issues.
Critics of the scheduling system have complained that it is unable to discuss vaccination appointments for people living in underserved communities, one of the key components of the state’s efforts to ensure that doses are distributed fairly. Vaccination providers said it would create unnecessary additional work by requiring information to be entered twice – into their own systems and My Turn. Others have said that an online dating system does not work to reach certain important communities and groups such as agricultural workers.
The state went on to continue the system, saying that 1 million appointments with My Turn were completed within seven weeks and that the site would increasingly play a key role in California’s focus on vaccine insurance.
Markovich said Friday that more than half of the provincial health agencies are using the My Turn system or will be within less than a week.