Vaccine Eligibility Expanded to 12- to 15- Year-Olds
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted to approve the use of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine among 12- to 15- year-olds. The Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment (CDPHE) estimates there are approximately 300,000 Coloradans who fall into this age range. Currently, middle school and high school aged students have the highest COVID-19 infection rates in the state.
We are reaching out to encourage our providers who can administer vaccines to enroll with CDPHE.
While you are currently enrolled to bill HCPF for services for Health First Colorado (Colorado’s Medicaid program) members, you must first enroll with CDPHE to administer the COVID-19 vaccines. This process also ensures you will have access to the vaccine to administer to your patients.
We appreciate your service to our members and encourage you to enroll with CDPHE to vaccinate Health First Colorado’s 12- to 15- year-old members.
Colorado Joint Vaccine Task Force Advises Providers to Take Every Opportunity to Vaccinate Every Eligible Person
To ensure all Coloradans have every opportunity to be fully vaccinated, the Colorado Joint Vaccine Task Force is joining the CDC in new guidance that advises that providers should not miss any opportunity to vaccinate every eligible person who requests a COVID-19 vaccination.
“As we move out of the sprint of vaccinating those at greatest risk and into the marathon of vaccinating those who have been waiting for it to be convenient or who might have some hesitancy, we need to prioritize access,” said Scott Bookman, Incident Commander of Colorado’s COVID-19 response. “In order to ensure every Coloradan who wants a vaccine can get one, we want smaller providers-- including clinics, primary care physicians, and urgent cares-- to be able to vaccinate their patients. To make this a reality, vaccine providers can open a vial even if they don’t use every dose.”
Colorado has administered more than 5 million doses of life saving COVID-19 vaccine. Approximately 2.4 million Coloradans are fully vaccinated and more than one hundred million people are fully vaccinated in the United States.
The more Coloradans who are vaccinated, the fewer COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, outbreaks, and deaths that will occur.
Providers should not miss any opportunities to vaccinate every eligible person who requests a vaccine, even if it means puncturing a multidose vial without having enough people available to receive each dose. While the focus is on taking every opportunity to vaccinate, here are some ways providers can help minimize wastage:
- Consider establishing and promoting standing vaccination days or half-days to increase the likelihood of larger numbers of people requesting vaccination on the same day.
- Vaccinate family members or friends of those who accompany patients to medical visits even if they are not established patients at the vaccinating practice.
- Continue outreach to employers or other community partners that have a large membership or network to arrange vaccination events.
- Attempt to contact additional persons (i.e., from a waitlist or through personal contacts of persons being vaccinated) to use as many vaccine doses as possible.
- Consider partnering with your local public health agency or other clinic that might be able to quickly use any extra doses from a punctured vial.
Once punctured, multidose vials must be used within 12 hours for Moderna, six hours for Pfizer and two hours for Johnson & Johnson/Janssen.
Colorado, in collaboration with our providers and partners, will continue to do everything possible to minimize the amount of vaccine that goes unused. Colorado has also had minimal amounts of wasted COVID-19 doses -- vaccine providers have reported 12,646 unused doses, which is less than 0.3 percent of the 5,092,644 doses administered. Vaccine providers must report wasted doses to the state. While wastage is rare, some of the main reasons cited for vaccine wastage in the last week were: issues maintaining proper temperatures, inability to use every dose prior to expiration, and dropped vials and syringes.
It’s common for providers to not use an entire vial with other multi dose vaccines. For example, in 2020, 11 percent of publicly-funded influenza vaccines were unused. Continue to stay up to date by visiting covid19.colorado.gov.
Vaccination Toolkit for Providers
As Colorado's vaccine supply is becoming readily available, more and more physicians are beginning to administer vaccinations to their patient population. Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment (CDPHE) created a communications toolkit for PCPs to help encourage their patients to get vaccinated.
Primary care providers are a trusted source of information for their patients. As such, you play an important role in the effort to increase COVID-19 vaccination uptake in our state. In this toolkit, you will find ready-to-use email, text, and social media messages encouraging patients to get vaccinated or to set up an appointment once you enroll as a COVID-19 vaccine provider. Messages have also been translated into Spanish. The toolkit also includes links to graphics and print resources.
Provider Rates & Fee Schedule
Guidance Memos
Webinar Recordings and Materials
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Long-Term Services and Supports (LTSS) COVID-19 Webinars and Training: Beginning in 2021, the Office of Community Living will continue to host monthly webinars covering issues related to COVID-19, in addition to other general updates, for the Disability, Older Adult, and Advocacy Communities and LTSS Providers. See the new web page for these monthly update webinars to see information about upcoming and past webinars.
