Latest news with #VaccinesforChildren
Yahoo
18 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Funding uncertainty has MCHD in 'difficult financial straits'
Jun. 2—MORGANTOWN — In the best of times, annual budgets are uncertain. They're well-educated guesses — estimates, if you prefer the term. You look at what you expect to get, weigh that against what you expect to spend — and hope nothing happens along the way that negatively skews either number beyond reconciliation. But what if you have no real way of knowing what to expect ? That's where leadership with the Monongalia County Health Department often is finding itself. MCHD Executive Director Anthony DeFelice has estimated that up to 40 % of the health department's budget originates from federal sources. As with most sectors dependent on federal dollars, there's considerable uncertainty in public health. The MCHD launched into an unprecedented budgeting process knowing some of those dollars are secure, some have already been eliminated and some are complete unknowns. "The IAP Grant is the immunization grant. It's just been a given every year that you're getting that. We've had no indication. They stopped the IAP grant and terminated it, " county Health Officer Dr. Brian Huggins said. "We don't know if the Vaccines for Children (Program) is going to exist next year. Those are significant funding sources that help pay for some of our nursing staff. With this budget, we didn't include them. If we get them, great. But we just don't know." And that, DeFelice explained, is how MCHD is approaching this budgeting process. If leadership is confident the funds are secure, they're included. If there's any uncertainty, the dollars aren't being budgeted. DeFelice described the process as "very thorough " and "very conservative." Chief Financial Officer Devan Smith explained that the health department's program managers and executive team have gone meticulously through each line item in an effort to determine where reductions can be made. Smith said budgeting in public health is already both art and science in that it often requires as much intuition as accounting. "When you add in deep uncertainty about whether core functions of the organization will continue to be funded, it not only makes providing estimates difficult, but also means that you have to question what services will be kept or lost under different scenarios, " he said. "What made this budget year so hard for us was not the mechanical process of performing calculations or reviewing expenses. It was weighing the people element — -potential reductions in the services we are able to provide to families in our community or impacts to employees we have worked with for years that may no longer have a job." Among the measures under consideration are fee increases. An initial example is a 10 % bump in fees for the health department's dental program. A review of if, where and when MCHD can continue to offer free and reduced-cost services is under consideration. The health department also plans to keep all vacant positions unfilled. Further, some programming considered "enhanced " offerings — meaning beyond the core functions of environmental health, communicable disease, immunization, threat preparedness and community health promotion — are being scaled back as only core, or basic, functions are eligible for state and county support. Huggins offered an example. "The biggest thing that is changing is that our family planning clinic is going to go from five days a week down to a single day a week. The biggest reason for that is loss of funding streams that were supporting our basic services. Family planning is an enhanced service by state code. Family planning, unfortunately, loses money. It just does, " he said, explaining the program lost somewhere around $150, 000 in the 2025 fiscal year. "There is potential with family planning that we may have to discontinue services completely if the funding stream stops. According to the DHHS budget that's been proposed by the administration, family planning is on the list of services that is to be eliminated — not moved to a different service, eliminated from funding. If that occurs, we'll look at everything we can because we realize, for a lot of people, this is a critical service."
Dominion Post
a day ago
- Health
- Dominion Post
Funding uncertainty has MCHD in 'dangerous financial straits'
MORGANTOWN — In the best of times, annual budgets are uncertain. They're well-educated guesses – estimates, if you prefer the term. You look at what you expect to get, weigh that against what you expect to spend – and hope nothing happens along the way that negatively skews either number beyond reconciliation. But what if you have no real way of knowing what to expect? That's where leadership with the Monongalia County Health Department often is finding itself. MCHD Executive Director Anthony DeFelice has estimated that up to 40% of the health department's budget originates from federal sources. As with most sectors dependent on federal dollars, there's considerable uncertainty in public health. The MCHD launched into an unprecedented budgeting process knowing some of those dollars are secure, some have already been eliminated and some are complete unknowns. 'The IAP Grant is the immunization grant. It's just been a given every year that you're getting that. We've had no indication. They stopped the IAP grant and terminated it,' county Health Officer Dr. Brian Huggins said. 'We don't know if the Vaccines for Children (Program) is going to exist next year. Those are significant funding sources that help pay for some of our nursing staff. With this budget, we didn't include them. If we get them, great. But we just don't know.' And that, DeFelice explained, is how MCHD is approaching this budgeting process. If leadership is confident the funds are secure, they're included. If there's any uncertainty, the dollars aren't being budgeted. DeFelice described the process as 'very thorough' and 'very conservative.' Chief Financial Officer Devan Smith explained that the health department's program managers and executive team have gone meticulously through each line item in an effort to determine where reductions can be made. Smith said budgeting in public health is already both art and science in that it often requires as much intuition as accounting. 'When you add in deep uncertainty about whether core functions of the organization will continue to be funded, it not only makes providing estimates difficult, but also means that you have to question what services will be kept or lost under different scenarios,' he said. 'What made this budget year so hard for us was not the mechanical process of performing calculations or reviewing expenses. It was weighing the people element –- potential reductions in the services we are able to provide to families in our community or impacts to employees we have worked with for years that may no longer have a job.' Among the measures under consideration are fee increases. An initial example is a 10% bump in fees for the health department's dental program. A review of if, where and when MCHD can continue to offer free and reduced-cost services is under consideration. The health department also plans to keep all vacant positions unfilled. Further, some programming considered 'enhanced' offerings – meaning beyond the core functions of environmental health, communicable disease, immunization, threat preparedness and community health promotion – are being scaled back as only core, or basic, functions are eligible for state and county support. Huggins offered an example. 'The biggest thing that is changing is that our family planning clinic is going to go from five days a week down to a single day a week. The biggest reason for that is loss of funding streams that were supporting our basic services. Family planning is an enhanced service by state code. Family planning, unfortunately, loses money. It just does,' he said, explaining the program lost somewhere around $150,000 in the 2025 fiscal year. 'There is potential with family planning that we may have to discontinue services completely if the funding stream stops. According to the DHHS budget that's been proposed by the administration, family planning is on the list of services that is to be eliminated – not moved to a different service, eliminated from funding. If that occurs, we'll look at everything we can because we realize, for a lot of people, this is a critical service.'
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
CDC counters RFK Jr., keeps COVID vaccine on schedule for kids
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s announcement Tuesday that the COVID-19 vaccine would come off the immunization schedule for children caused a stir among medical groups and others. Now the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has seemingly contradicted the U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services, under whose purview federal public health agencies including their own fall. As The New York Times reported Friday, 'The agency kept COVID shots on the schedule for healthy children 6 months to 17 years old, but added a new condition. Children and their caregivers will be able to get the vaccines in consultation with a doctor or provider, which the agency calls 'shared decision-making.'' The CDC told the Times the shots would also remain available for the 38 million low-income children who participate in the Vaccines for Children program, under the same conditions. HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon couched the week's yo-yo-announcements as 'restoring the doctor-patient relationship.' Parents can decide, he said, in consultation with their health practitioner. The immunization schedule note dated May 29 from the CDC said that 'shared clinical decision-making vaccinations are individually based and informed by a decision process between the health care provider and the patient or parent/guardian. Where the parent presents with a desire for their child to be vaccinated, children 6 months and older may receive COVID-19 vaccination, informed by the clinical judgment of a health care provider and personal preference and circumstances.' As Deseret News reported earlier this week, Kennedy, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary and National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya released a video heralding the removal of the shots from the recommended immunization schedule. Bhattacharya called the decision 'common sense' and 'good science,' but pediatricians and other medical groups pushed back, noting it could put children at risk and that if insurance companies decided not to cover the vaccine as a result, some patients also might not be able to afford it. Kennedy and the others also said that the COVID-19 shot would not be recommended for pregnant women. Nixon appeared to include them in the shared decision-making response late this week. But without a government mandate or recommendation, whether insurance will pay remains a question. COVID-19 vaccine recommendations have been a moving target. Last week, HHS recommended that those 65 and older get the shots, which are updated to match the variant that's expected to circulate. But it said for the vaccines to be licensed for healthy people ages 6 months to 64, new clinical trials will be required. That recommendation also included folks who have certain specific chronic health conditions or are immune-compromised, as well as pregnant women. They were removed later.
Time of India
4 days ago
- Health
- Time of India
CDC contradicts Robert F. Kennedy and keeps advice that children may get COVID shots
Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel Days after Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that COVID-19 shots would be removed from the federal immunization schedule for children, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued updated advice that largely countered Kennedy's new agency kept COVID shots on the schedule for healthy children ages 6 months to 17 years old, but added a new condition: Children and their caregivers will be able to get the vaccines in consultation with a doctor or provider, which the agency calls "shared decision-making."The shots will also remain available under those terms to about 38 million low-income children who rely on the Vaccines for Children program , according to an emailed update from the CDC on original pronouncement, on Tuesday, had caused an uproar among pediatricians and public health experts, who pointed out that very young children and pregnant women face high risks of severe illness from the virus. Many also worried that the new policy would prompt insurers and government programs to reduce or drop coverage of the cost of the latest changes clarify coverage for healthy children older than 6 months. But they leave those highest-risk groups -- pregnant woman and young infants who are covered by immunization during pregnancy -- without a formal Nixon, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, defended the shifts in policy this week. "If a parent desires their healthy child to be vaccinated, their decision should be based on informed consent through the clinical judgment of their health care provider," Nixon said in a CDC's determinations can be influential in setting insurance and public benefit coverage. It remains unclear how private health insurers and Medicaid will approach coverage of the COVID vaccine for pregnant women And the policy change on consultations with doctors or providers is likely to create barriers for children hoping to get a vaccine at a retail pharmacy, said Richard Hughes IV, a lawyer with Epstein Becker & Green who has advised vaccine companies. "It is problematic," he said.
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Pediatrician: Measles outbreak preventable in Iowa
In Scott County, 88.8% of kindergarteners are fully vaccinated against measles with the MMR vaccine, according to a news release. (Getty Images) The MMR vaccine protects against measles, mumps, and rubella. Measles is one of the most contagious diseases, and to prevent spread, at least 95% of a community needs to be fully vaccinated. Iowa is not at herd immunity levels in vaccination rates. As of Monday, there are confirmed measles cases in 24 states. 'The bottom line is we want to protect Iowans,' said Elizabeth Faber, Iowa Immunizes Coalition director. 'Measles is incredibly contagious, so of course, we are advocating for parents to ensure their children are vaccinated. We know parents are incredibly responsible and want the best for their children. We're glad there has been a slight increase in vaccinations as compared to the previous year.' In Iowa, only a few counties out of the state's 99 counties boast rates of 95% or more kindergartners having the two doses of MMR vaccinations that makes them fully vaccinated against measles. The CDC notes that children should get two doses of MMR vaccine, starting with the first dose at 12 to 15 months of age, and the second dose at 4 through 6 years of age. To reach full vaccination status against measles, children are able to get their second dose early. Parents should consult with their child's pediatrician about their child's vaccinations as well as any questions they have about measles immunizations, the release says. 'Measles is one of the most contagious diseases. Unless there are active efforts to slow it down, it has a good chance to keep spreading and that increases the chance it will impact Iowa. The good news is the vaccine is very effective so it's easily preventable,' said Dr. Nathan Boonstra, a Des Moines-based pediatrician and chair of the Iowa Immunizes Coalition. Vaccinating a child not only helps protect that child from diseases and serious health complications, it also helps protect those in the community who are immuno-compromised, such as those undergoing cancer treatments. Teens and adults should ensure they are up to date on their MMR vaccination. In Iowa, 85.7% of adolescents (13-15-years-old) had both doses of the MMR vaccination to protect against measles. That number rose slightly over the past five years. Adults should speak with their healthcare provider to ensure their vaccinations are up to date including their vaccinations against measles., the release says. To learn more about vaccinations in Iowa, visit here. Your child may be eligible for free vaccines through the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program. To find a VFC provider near you, visit here. ,Adults can check with their local public health agency for eligibility. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WHBF -
