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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
Only two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine remain in the refrigerator at Good Samaritan Gwinnett Health Centers in Norcross, Georgia. Once those vaccines are used, the nonprofit fears it will have to qualify 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 uninsured Georgian residents. 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 uninsured adults, or those whose insurance plans didn’t fully cover the vaccine, could get the shots for free. The 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 are uninsured.
But the program ends this month, making it even more difficult for gyms to supply single injections. The C. D. C. announced in May that investment for the program, whose clinics are expected to last until December, would run out by the end of August. A spokesperson for the C. D. C. said the company is looking at ways to expand access to vaccines for others without insurance.
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 are uninsured and unable to afford vaccines out of pocket. Many are restaurant workers, cashiers, drivers and others who, unvaccinated, are more vulnerable to infection and likely wouldn’t have the paid leave needed to stay home if they get sick.
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