MGMA: Physician Practices Left Behind on Vaccine Rollouts; Patients Forced to ‘Chase’
Healthcare workers on the frontlines began receiving the COVID-19 vaccine in December, but a new survey from the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) finds that medical practices across the country are being left out of COVID-19 vaccination rollout efforts.
The survey revealed, shockingly, that 85 percent of independent practices and 45 percent of hospital or health system-owned practices actively seeking the COVID-19 vaccine for their patients report having obtained none to date. The majority of practices that have obtained the vaccine report only receiving enough to vaccinate 1 percent or less of their patients.
The Colorado-based MGMA survey reflects responses from over 400 medical group practices. The association is the nation’s largest that’s focused on the business of medical practice management. MGMA consists of 15,000 group medical practices ranging from small private medical practices to large national health systems representing more than 350,000 physicians.
Though discouraging, this isn’t the first sign that physician practices are being left behind on vaccine distribution and rollout efforts. Last month, a survey from the Primary Care Collaborative (PCC) revealed that while primary care is critical to the vaccines’ distribution, just 23 percent of respondents said they know from where they are getting the vaccine, with only one in five saying they know where it will be stored. The data also showed that only 5 percent of practices have a full plan for vaccine distribution, while fewer than one in four clinicians said they are prepared for the logistics of providing the vaccine.
“Primary care needs focused, additional support from policymakers and health plans in order to meet the multiple challenges the pandemic has presented,” Ann Greiner, president and CEO of the PCC said at that time. “This support will enable them to be a critical part of vaccine-dissemination efforts and provide the acute and chronic primary care services patients need to prevent the overburdening of our urgent care and hospital systems.”
Halee Fischer-Wright, M.D., president and CEO of MGMA, noted in a Jan. 25 statement, "Current distribution efforts take patients away from trusted ties with their physicians and force them into haphazard vaccine chasing. Physician practices have the capacity and strategic ability to proactively deliver the vaccine by identifying patients by age, preexisting conditions, and other risk factors.”
She added, “Patients trust their physicians to answer questions about vaccine safety and efficacy. MGMA calls on the new Administration to leverage the nation's medical groups to expedite and streamline the vaccine rollout. Without physicians at the helm of this critical effort, patients will be left behind.”
