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Clinics that treat other uninsured or underinsured people say they are now struggling to figure out how to pay for vaccines.
By Dani Blum and Katie Mogg
There are only two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine left in the refrigerator at Good Samaritan Gwinnett Health Centers in Norcross, Georgia. Once those vaccines are used, the nonprofit fears it will have to grade its patients for what was once a loose vaccine. vaccine.
“Once we get out of this, we may not be able to serve them unless they can pay,” said Greg Lang, chief financial officer of the nonprofit, which serves more than 25,000 Georgia residents. insured. The vaccine can cost more than $100 out of pocket, plus management costs.
After Covid-19 vaccines hit the advertising market last fall, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stepped in so that adults without insurance, or those whose insurance plans didn’t fully cover the vaccine, could get shots for free. The agency’s Bridge Access program has provided about 1. 5 million vaccines, Dr. Kelly said. Georgina Peacock, director of CDC’s Division of Immunization Services. Nationally, about 27 million adults lack health insurance.
But the program ends this month, making it even more difficult for gyms to provide loose vaccines. announced in May that investment for the program, whose clinics are expected to last through December, will run out at the end of August. A CDC spokesperson. said the company was exploring methods to expand access to vaccines for other uninsured people.
For the network’s fitness clinics, the uncertainty comes at an already complicated time: Covid is circulating. The last Covid vaccines are expected to arrive in the fall, which will attract more people to clinics to get vaccinated. And fall and winter will likely be the most likely. bring new waves of cases.
Community fitness clinics serve patients who do not have insurance and cannot pay for vaccines out of pocket. Many are restaurant workers, cashiers, drivers and others who, without vaccination, are more vulnerable to infection and likely would not have paid time off. They need to stay home if they get sick.
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