National Immunization Awareness Month Might Represent a Financial Opportunity for Your Practice

August is National Immunization Awareness Month (NIAM), and it’s the perfect time to educate your patients about the importance of vaccines.

We know what you’re thinking: I totally get the importance of vaccines for my patients, but vaccines aren’t all that profitable for my practice. That may be the case now, but it doesn’t have to be. According to an article from the Association of Family Practice Management, there are a few easy things you can do to make vaccines more profitable for your practice:

• Systematically compare prices to ensure that you are purchasing vaccines at the lowest cost.
• Use a credit card that provides cash-back rewards to purchase vaccines.
• Code for immunizations correctly.
  
  • Bill for the vaccine itself. This reminds the insurance company that this is part of the routine immunization schedule.
  • Add a National Drug Code (NDC). If you happen to use a quadrivalent flu vaccine that costs a few dollars more than the others, the NDC tells the insurer to reimburse you at the higher rate.
  • Bill for the immunization administration.

Use National Immunization Awareness Month both as an opportunity to promote vaccines for your patients and as an opportunity to assess your internal processes to ensure you’re maximizing the impact of vaccines on your bottom line.