CDC now recommends COVID-19 vaccination through shared clinical decision-making, emphasizing informed consent and personalized discussions with health care providers, including pharmacists. Most insurance plans are expected to continue to cover the vaccine without a prescription.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s most recent recommendations for COVID-19 vaccines call for “vaccination based on shared clinical decision-making,” it said. press release It was published on Tuesday.
“Informed consent is back,” said Jim O’Neil, Acting Director and Deputy Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. “CDC’s 2022 blanket recommendations for permanent COVID-19 booster doses have prevented health care providers from talking about the risks and benefits of vaccination for individual patients or parents.”
Jen Kates, senior vice president and director of global health and HIV policy at KFF, a nonpartisan health policy organization, explained that the CDC is recommending that “there should be an interaction between the individual and the provider” when considering COVID-19 vaccination.
That doesn’t mean patients have to rush to get to their primary care doctor’s office, but it may create “an extra step” for patients who want to get the vaccine, she said.
“A provider is broadly defined. It can be a pharmacist, but it doesn’t have to be a primary care physician. In most states, you don’t have to have a doctor’s visit,” she said.
“You should be able to go to the pharmacist, have a conversation with the pharmacist, and then make a decision through shared discussion,” Kates said.
The key may be how pharmacists or insurance providers interpret the updated wording of the CDC recommendations.
Regarding insurance coverage, Kates said, “The requirement under federal law is that the ACIP recommendations (advisory committee) and the vaccine recommendations adopted by the CDC must be covered.”
This would include private insurance along with Medicare and Medicaid, Kates said. Most large insurers have said they will continue to cover COVID-19 vaccines “at least for the foreseeable future.”
For example, in Maryland, Sean O’Donnell of the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services explained: “The Maryland Department of Health has issued a statewide COVID-19 vaccination standby order.”
“This empowers qualified health care professionals to follow the most up-to-date, evidence-based guidelines as the standard,” O’Donnell said. “In Maryland, this also means you will not need a prescription to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.”
CVS spokeswoman Shannon Dillon said pharmacists will be involved in decisions related to patients. She said it would consist of a brief conversation between the patient and the pharmacist.
“If a patient requests the vaccine, we will administer the vaccine,” Dillon said in a statement.
Dillon also said he understands that most insurance plans cover the cost of vaccinations for eligible patients and no prescription is required, but you should check with your insurer.
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