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Blue Shield of California will create an algorithm to determine where to allocate COVID-19 vaccines statewide with the goal of being able to administer 3 million vaccines per week by March 1, according to a contract released on Monday that grants the giant insurance far-reaching powers to oversee the distribution of doses by the state.
The company will attempt to significantly increase the number of daily doses, but that goal will largely depend on the supply sent to the state. California received just over a million doses of the vaccine last week from the federal government.
Blue Shield, which wields considerable influence over state policy, will immediately work to centralize the state’s COVID-19 vaccination program after a slow start due to a lack of available doses, complex regulations dictating which Californians to prioritize and data communication problems.
The contract says Blue Shield’s algorithm will prioritize vaccine distribution with a “focus on equity” statewide and will be updated based on vaccine availability and COVID rates. 19. Few other details on the algorithm were available on Monday.
Under the contract, Blue Shield also has wide latitude to select which healthcare providers and counties will continue to receive and administer doses in California as part of a vaccine network.
“We are changing a process halfway through and I hope it becomes easier and not more bureaucratic and difficult for clinics in my community to serve their client populations,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly Mitchell, in an interview on Monday. “This is not the solution Los Angeles County needs. Los Angeles County needs more vaccine and flexibility to distribute it more equitably. “
The state’s decision to bring Blue Shield to the helm takes key decision-making over vaccine administration out of county jurisdiction as California’s vaccination efforts began to take off. More than 6 million doses have been administered in the state, with California now averaging one million vaccines per week, Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a tweet on Monday.
Kaiser Permanente, which provides healthcare services to more than 9 million Californians, is expected to sign a separate contract with the state to set up a vaccination program for its members while overseeing at least two mass vaccination sites and helping to immunize the “hard to reach”. and disproportionately affected populations, ”according to a letter of intent published on January 29.
The two companies have agreed that they will run the programs at or near cost and “will not profit,” according to the letters of intent. Blue Shield’s contract states that the company cannot charge the state more than $ 15 million during the term of the contract for reimbursable charges.
Newsom, which has been criticized for the state’s slow deployment, said the deal with Blue Shield and Kaiser will ensure vaccines are delivered faster and more fairly while improving the reliability of data that have so far been problematic. But some county officials say the process has been slowed down by a vaccine shortage and noted that state data has failed to accurately show their progress in administering the vaccines.
“It’s a supply issue, not a logistics issue,” said Buddy Mendes, a member of the Fresno County Board of Trustees and vice president of California Urban Counties. “Give us the doses, that’s all we’re asking for. We will put them in people’s arms.
Urban counties in California wrote to Newsom on February 3 to “raise serious concerns” about the deal with Blue Shield, wondering why the state would call on the company so late in the process after the counties have spent significant sums to develop vaccine distribution. The deal with Blue Shield, the group writes, could confuse the supply chain and disrupt systems created by local governments.
“Our main concern is to make sure we have enough vaccines to cover appointments at our large-scale vaccination sites,” the letter said.
Ventura County officials have asked the state for the possibility of being excluded from the Blue Shield deal, saying its own vaccination program was limited only by the lack of available doses. Officials said Ventura County could increase its capacity to deliver 8,000 doses per day if enough vaccine was provided. Allowing Blue Shield to determine how many doses a county is receiving puts those efforts in limbo, the county wrote. The contract released on Monday did not allow counties to pull out.
“All of this capacity and capability would be interrupted if vaccine stocks were diverted or reduced,” wrote Linda Parks, chairman of the supervisory board, and Michael Powers, the county general manager.
The contract will create a vaccine network in three “geographic waves”, although the areas and timelines for this plan were not included in the contract. Sources have provided The Times with a tentative schedule confirmed by the California Department of Public Health in which Central Valley counties such as Fresno, Kern, San Joaquin and Stanislaus are in the first wave which begins on February 21.
Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Ventura are among the counties in the second wave that begins March 7. A week later, the counties of San Francisco, Contra Costa and Alameda are among those who would begin participating in the network of vaccine providers. .
Newsom authorized the deal with Blue Shield and Kaiser in an emergency contract that does not require legislative approval. The governor announced the deal late last month, but the contract was not signed until Friday. The terms of the contract run until December 31.
The announcement that Blue Shield would play another key role in the state’s response to the pandemic has sparked a new round of criticism over the firm’s close ties to Newsom.
The Oakland-based company, which serves some 4 million Californians, was asked to improve coronavirus testing efforts in April after the disastrous start to the state, which included a shortage of test supplies, long wait times for results, and data issues.
The company’s chief executive, Paul Markovich, served as co-chair of the governor’s testing task force, while some company employees also worked on the effort.
Blue Shield is a leading player in California political campaigns, having spent more than $ 1 million to support Newsom’s campaign for governor in 2018 and nearly $ 1.3 million to lobby the state government in the last legislative session. In January 2020, Blue Shield donated $ 20 million to support Newsom’s homelessness program.
Newsom said on February 3 that tying Blue Shield’s political support and influence to the company that landed the vaccination deal was “absurd.”
“Everyone came together to see what works, what doesn’t, and we’ve identified two partners in particular, two nonprofits, Kaiser and Blue Shield,” Newsom said. “… They have the kind of scale, they have the capacity, they have the allocation-distribution mindset that we were looking for.”
Times Sacramento bureau chief John Myers contributed to this report.
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