Health Care Providers

Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)

Every year, the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) provides recommendations for the administration of immunizations for health care professionals. The 2007 ACIP recommendations for vaccine preventable diseases are located online at:
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/ACIP-list.htm

Vaccines for Children Program (VFC)

The VFC is the federally-funded program that supplies health care providers including public health departments with free vaccines for children.

Children are eligible for free VFC vaccines if they are under 19 years old and are:

enrolled in Medicaid; or
uninsured; or under-insured or whose insurance doesn't cover immunizations; or
Native-American

What vaccines are supplied by the VFC program?
The VFC program provides vaccines for: measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, hepatitis B, Haemophilus Influenzae type b disease, human papilloma virus, influenza, meningococcal disease, pneumococcus (both pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine and pneumococcal conjugate vaccine), rotavirus, and varicella (chicken pox).

VFC benefits for parents and children
• Children get the vaccinations they need to prevent childhood diseases on time and on schedule
• Parents can choose a participating doctor and keep their child in a real "medical home"
• Significant savings on vaccination costs

VFC benefits for health care providers
• No longer have to refer patients for immunizations
• With VFC, Medicaid has increased the vaccine administration fee to $17.85 per vaccination.
• Vaccinate patients with free vaccines for each eligible child.
• Provider enrollment is easy! Vaccine distribution is simple - delivery of vaccines within 3 to 5 working days of ordering from a toll free number!

For more information about the VFC, please visit:

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/programs/vfc/default.htm