In October 2001, a group of about 50 health officials, public health experts, health care providers, health plan representatives and purchasers, state legislative officials, and community leaders met at the Texas Medical Association in Austin to discuss state-specific challenges for immunization finance and future strategies for strengthening immunization activities and the public health infrastructure that supports those activities.
Texas is among the states that have the nation's lowest immunization coverage rate for 2-year-olds, according to the most recent data. The state's efforts to improve vaccination rates are hampered by many obstacles, including the state's increasing birth rate and national shortages of some vaccines, which the General Accounting Office recently noted have forced most states to ration shots in recent months.
This report, Setting the Course, summarizes the 1-day workshop, the second in a series of four regional meetings organized by IOM to explore the implications of the IOM findings and recommendations from the IOM report, Calling the Shots: Immunization Finance Policies and Practices (2000).
For Texas, in particular, the workshop discussions suggested several next steps. Legislative action is one strategy, for example, creating new criteria and guidelines for the development of the state's immunization registry. State health agencies and professional groups can also establish incentives to encourage more providers to participate in immunization programs such as the Vaccines for Children program (VFC) and to improve collaboration between public and private health sectors in establishing reminder/recall systems and immunization awareness programs.
You can read this workshop summary on the NAP website at http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10495.html.