After testimony from CAFP and other co-sponsors (California Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, California Medical Association and California Association of Physician Groups), AB 2093 (M. Pérez) passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee on a 7-1 vote on Monday.  The bill would require a health care service plan or health insurer providing coverage for childhood and adolescent immunizations to adequately pay a physician or physician group for the cost of administering a vaccine.  In addition, health plan contracts and insurance policies would be prohibited from imposing a deductible, co-payment, co-insurance or other cost-sharing mechanism for administering a childhood immunization.

The payment physicians receive from health plans often fails to cover the cost to acquire vaccines for their patients.  Many physicians must choose between subsidizing each immunization they give or turning away patients for this critical preventive care.  In the wake of the pertussis epidemic, there must be a robust network of community-based physicians who are not constrained from administering vaccines because of the below-cost payment of some health plans.  This bill would also prohibit a health plan from requiring a physician or physician group to assume financial risk for the acquisition or administration costs of recommended immunizations.  The bill will now be voted on by the State Senate.