Immunization Financing: Key Area for American Academy of Pediatrics Advocacy

Abstract

After reading these very informative articles, I cannot help but imagine that, if I were a business person charged with organizing a pediatric practice, I would immediately eliminate immunizations from the menu of services offered. However, immunizations are the most effective public health tool ever invented. They are the backbone of preventive pediatrics and the most valuable “carrots” pediatricians have to attract families to their practices. Furthermore, pediatricians chose their profession not from a business perspective but to experience the excitement and gratification of providing comprehensive health services for all children in a pediatric medical home. In light of that calling, these articles serve as a wake-up call. Pediatricians must examine their immunization practices carefully and must work within the public and private health care sectors to improve the financing of child and adolescent immunization. If there is no profit margin in this large portion of their pediatric businesses, then surely there will be a reduction in their ability to accomplish their holistic child health mission. What should be the strategy of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)? Tradition and facts are on the side of pediatricians, and the AAP must use this information to promote its cause. Parents expect their children to receive immunizations … Address correspondence to David T. Tayloe Jr, MD, FAAP, Goldsboro Pediatrics, 2706 Medical Office Place, Goldsboro, NC 27534. E-mail: dd.tayloe{at}earthlink.net