Vaccines save lives, yet there are persistent barriers to reaching optimal uptake of recommended vaccinations. As the largest public payer of prevention services, Medicaid plays a key role in the prevention of vaccine-preventable diseases by facilitating access to vaccines for children, adolescents, and adults. At the federal level, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) jointly run the Vaccines for Children
(VFC) program, which provides vaccines to Medicaid- and CHIP-enrolled youth.
At the state and local levels, collaboration between immunization programs (IPs) and Medicaid programs holds great promise to overcome challenges and reach mutual goals to protect communities from vaccine-preventable diseases.
To learn more about IP collaboration efforts, AIM held two online focus group discussions in August 2020. Nine IP managers (PMs) or staff representatives participated to discuss the challenges, barriers, and strategies related to promoting stronger collaboration with Medicaid to improve vaccination rates. The information in this fact sheet is not representative or inclusive of all 64 state, local, and territorial IPs. It serves as a summary of the discussion and provides insight into the IP perspective.
