NEWS

State nixing free vaccines for some children

Joe Sneve
jsneve@argusleader.com
Flu Shot by a Needle

Healthcare providers are worried flu vaccination rates will drop when the state health department stops offering free shots to about half of South Dakota children later this year.

Historically, the South Dakota Department of Health has used federal immunization dollars to provide influenza vaccinations to anyone under the age of 18 regardless of family income or insurance status. But because the Affordable Care Act requires health insurance providers cover immunizations and a reduction in immunization funding states receive, South Dakota will no longer offer free shots to children unless they meet certain federal requirements.

Beginning with the 2016-2017 flu season, free flu vaccines will be provided only to uninsured children or children on Medicaid. In the event an insurance plan doesn’t cover vaccination, children would be able to get a free shot at a rural health clinic, a federally qualified health center or at one of the state’s community health office.

Colleen Winter, Family and Community Health Director with the state health office, said about half of the children in South Dakota will be eligible for free flu vaccinations. The other half, she said, will now have to provide insurance information to have their shots covered.

“We have community health nurses that work with schools. We’ll continue to do that. We’ll just be billing insurance for kids that don’t have VFC eligibility,” she said.

That has significant implications for the Sioux Falls School District and other schools that conduct on campus flu shot clinics as well as the state’s vaccination rate.

For at least five years, the Sioux Falls School District each October has offered free flu shots to all middle and high school students. Last fall, about 2,000 Sioux Falls students were vaccinated for the flu during normal school hours.

Slow start to flu season the 'tip of the iceberg'

Sioux Falls School District Health Services Supervisor Molly Satter said because of the change in the state’s flu vaccine policy, providing immunizations to students would require disclosure of financial and insurance status. Schools would also have to bill insurance companies for vaccination costs, she said.

“We don’t have the way or the means to process insurance,” she said, adding the district will no longer hold an annual flu shot clinic. “We didn’t have to ask students about their insurance status or their financial situation. We no longer have that free vaccine so … that would have us singling out or narrowing out students who are maybe living in poverty.”

Rural communities will also be impacted. Avera Dells Area Hospital and Clinic holds annual flu shot clinics at Dell Rapids and other area schools. But the future of those efforts is in jeopardy.

Clinic Manager Dustin Berg said it’s not clear if insurance providers will accept claims for services administered outside of the medical center.

“To bill insurance for something done off site, it either can’t be done or it's going to be a challenge,” he said.

Under the best-case scenario, he said, parents are going to have to fill out more paperwork than they’d been used to if their children have previously been immunized at school. That extra hurdle could result in parents opting not to get their kids vaccinated for the flu all together.

Last year, 57 percent of South Dakotans were vaccinated for the flu, the highest rate in the country. For children between ages 5 and 17, South Dakota had an immunization rate of 61 percent.

Berg and Satter both said they expect influenza immunization rates to fall as a result of the policy change.

“The concern is less vaccinated kids,” Berg said. “I don’t see a scenario where we have the same vaccination rates going forward. Adding an extra hurdle, vaccine rates decline and with that comes more illness.”

Nancy Neff, a Sioux Falls mother with two children enrolled in the school district, said not having the option to get flu shots at school will force her to make a trip to the her family pediatrician, something that could create conflicts with other scheduled activities.

"My kids are in so many activities, so to get them to the pediatrician, it's so much easier for me to say, 'Go into the school to get a shot,'" she said.

BY THE NUMBERS - Flu season summary

15 - Confirmed cases of the flu

7 - Flu-related hospitalizations 

1 - Flu-related death

57 - Percent of S.D. immunized last year

61 - Percent of S.D. children immunized last year

2,004 - Students immunized by the S.F. School District in 2015