HPV shot can be hard to find
Published: May 1, 2007 at 12:36 PM
WASHINGTON, May 1 (UPI) -- Some U.S. physicians aren't stocking the new vaccine to prevent cervical cancer because they said insurers won't pay enough for them to immunize patients.
"This is a national issue that is affecting lots of people," Dr. Benjamin Gitterman, president of the Washington chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, told The Washington Post. "It's a matter of cash flow."
Pediatricians told the newspaper that insurance companies willing to cover Gardasil vaccine will sometimes pay doctors $2 more than the $122 per shot cost to doctors, not enough to cover their costs.
"I have to pay for nursing time, supplies, syringes, alcohol pads, dropped doses and time to explain it," Poughkeepsie, N.Y., pediatrician Dr. Herschel R. Lessin told the newspaper. "And when insurance companies decide to pay me $122 per dose and take three months to pay, I can't afford to do it. For insurance companies that are paying me $140 or $150 a dose, I'll give it."
Otherwise, Lessin said he gives patients a prescription for Gardasil that they have filled at a pharmacy and bring back to his office to be administered. Other pediatricians also are using prescriptions to supply Gardasil, a system that can mean the patient gets no insurance coverage at all for the vaccine, the Post said.
The vaccine's availability was limited even in places like Washington, where it will soon be required for girls to attend school, the Post reported.
"This is a national issue that is affecting lots of people," Dr. Benjamin Gitterman, president of the Washington chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, told The Washington Post. "It's a matter of cash flow."
Pediatricians told the newspaper that insurance companies willing to cover Gardasil vaccine will sometimes pay doctors $2 more than the $122 per shot cost to doctors, not enough to cover their costs.
"I have to pay for nursing time, supplies, syringes, alcohol pads, dropped doses and time to explain it," Poughkeepsie, N.Y., pediatrician Dr. Herschel R. Lessin told the newspaper. "And when insurance companies decide to pay me $122 per dose and take three months to pay, I can't afford to do it. For insurance companies that are paying me $140 or $150 a dose, I'll give it."
Otherwise, Lessin said he gives patients a prescription for Gardasil that they have filled at a pharmacy and bring back to his office to be administered. Other pediatricians also are using prescriptions to supply Gardasil, a system that can mean the patient gets no insurance coverage at all for the vaccine, the Post said.
The vaccine's availability was limited even in places like Washington, where it will soon be required for girls to attend school, the Post reported.
© 2007 United Press International. All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
» Next in Science:
Plants' production of vitamin C studied
This undated NASA image shows two galaxies that are slowly colliding and possibly, in hundreds of millions of years, only one galaxy will remain. Although it is likely that no stars in the two galaxies will directly collide, the gas, dust and ambient magnetic fields do interact directly. These galaxies, part of the vast Hydra-Centaurus supercluster of galaxies, spans over 100 thousand light-years across and is located about 100 million light-years away. (UPI Photo/NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage)
NASA image shows galaxies that will slowly collide
Full Photo
| Slideshow
Latest Headlines
Most Popular
- Parakeet eggs lure man into live wire
- New York teachers learn cell phone lessons
- Florida deputy bitten by gator
- Arrest in 1991 'Point Break' robbery
- Thong helps Giambi out of slumps
- Woman with large cyst told to lose weight
- Bus group wants 'gentler' female drivers
- Man claimed real benefits for fake kids