Nation’s Physician Practices Left out of COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout, Forcing Patients to Vaccine Chase
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (January 25, 2021) — A new MGMA survey finds that medical practices across the country are being left out of COVID-19 rollout efforts. The survey revealed a staggering 85% of independent practices and 45% of hospital or health system-owned practices actively seeking the COVID-19 vaccine for their patients report having obtained none to date. The majority of practices that have obtained the vaccine report only receiving enough to vaccinate 1% or less of their patients. The MGMA survey reflects responses from more than 400 medical group practices.
“Current distribution efforts take patients away from trusted ties with their physicians and force them into haphazard vaccine chasing. Physician practices have the capacity and strategic ability to proactively deliver the vaccine by identifying patients by age, preexisting conditions, and other risk factors. Patients trust their physicians to answer questions about vaccine safety and efficacy. MGMA calls on the new Administration to leverage the nation’s medical groups to expedite and streamline the vaccine rollout. Without physicians at the helm of this critical effort, patients will be left behind,” said Halee Fischer-Wright, MD, MMM, FAAP, FACMPE, president and CEO of MGMA.
About MGMA
Founded in 1926, the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) is the nation’s largest association focused on the business of medical practice management. MGMA consists of 15,000 group medical practices ranging from small private medical practices to large national health systems representing more than 350,000 physicians. MGMA helps nearly 60,000 medical practice leaders and the healthcare community solve the business challenges of running practices so that they can focus on providing outstanding patient care. To learn more, go to mgma.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
