The physicians and PAs of Willows Pediatrics want to make our families aware of a new State of Connecticut Mandate regarding the supply of vaccines to all Connecticut health care providers who give vaccines to children. This mandate will go into effect January 1, 2013.
This past summer, the Connecticut General Assembly enacted Public Act 12-1, Connecticut General Statute 19a-7f, into state law. The new law requires that on January 1, 2013, any healthcare provider administering pediatric vaccines must use vaccine provided by the State of Connecticut. This mandate applies to the majority of vaccines given to all children from birth through 18 years of age.
Up until now, we have purchased all of our vaccines directly from vaccine manufacturers. We will continue to do so for the few vaccines that are not included in the State mandate. These vaccines are HPV (Human Papilloma Vaccine), Rotateq, and Prevnar (until March 1, 2013 after which the State will provide).
Connecticut has also placed age restrictions on some vaccines, including Hepatitis A for children two years of age and older and Flu Vaccine (Injectable and Flu Mist) for children five years of age and older. This means some of these vaccines will be State supplied and some will be privately purchased.
We do not have experience with State supplied vaccine other than for H1N1. Those of you who were with us during that time may remember it as a challenging time because of the limited supply of H1N1 that the State provided to us.
Willows Pediatrics is making every effort to work within the system required by the State mandate to bring about a seamless transition to the program. However, it is possible there may be periodic, temporary shortages of some vaccines over which we have no control. In other words, we can order vaccine in anticipation of your family’s need, but we are still dependant on the State for the fulfillment of our order.
We will work continuously to ensure that we have all necessary vaccines on hand for every child at the time of your visit, but we also want to make you aware there might be circumstances out of our control that might not make this possible.
Please feel free to contact Susan Amster, our Practice Administrator, ext. 1224 if you have any questions.