Pharmacists are the solution for the lagging vaccination rates of seniors in the U.S.
What if you were told that only seven percent of seniors were healthy eaters? Or that only 7% of those over aged 65 wore a seatbelt?
You would know those statistics couldn’t be accurate. However, according to a recent study from the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), only seven percent of U.S. seniors received Medicare Part D-eligible vaccines in 2021.
Vaccines are one of the most important things any of us — but seniors, in particular, can do to protect their health. So how is it that uptake for this population is so low? And how does the public health community address this challenge?
The ASPE report aimed to examine how much money could have been saved with the newly enacted Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which contained a provision that eliminated out-of-pocket costs for Medicare Part D vaccines. According to ASPE, the number would have been close to $240 million if the out-of-pocket removal was in place in 2021. The potential saving is good news for seniors with Medicare Part D benefit since private insurance policies or Affordable Care Act have provided vaccine coverage without any out-of-pocket cost to their enrollees for the past decade.
How do we encourage more seniors to receive vaccines reimbursed through Medicare Part D? The answer may be as close as your local pharmacy.
In 2022, Global Healthy Living Foundation (GHLF) researchers demonstrated that low-income patients have superior access to pharmacies than physician practices that commonly administer adult vaccines. An important finding was that when adjusting for longer hours of operation at a pharmacy and the limited number of physician offices that administer Medicare Part D vaccines, access to pharmacies was greater than 400%. Hence low-income seniors have far greater access to pharmacies than physician practices to access immunization services.
In addition, in 2023, GHLF and IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science released a report establishing that across all vaccines for adults, post-pandemic (regardless of location, gender, or income), most of the administration occurred at the pharmacy level. A significant majority of COVID-19, shingles, and flu shots were administered by pharmacists compared to non-pharmacy medical settings, with the share of pneumococcal and adult HPV vaccination at pharmacies also trending up.
When breaking down the ASPE report, GHLF researchers deciphered that over 50% of Medicare Part D patients who received a vaccine resided primarily in the top 10 most populous states. In those states, there are also 400% more pharmacies compared to physician practices when considering longer hours of operation of a pharmacy and the inability of a physician practice to administer a Medicare Part D vaccine serving low-income patients. It is important to note that some of the most populous states also have the most restrictive laws prohibiting pharmacists from immunizing patients. This creates a significant access barrier for vulnerable patients who may benefit most from vaccines.
Adult patients overwhelmingly utilize pharmacies for routine vaccinations, while low-income seniors have better access to pharmacies than physician offices. Hence, artificial access barriers for low-income seniors can undermine equitable access to immunization and equity in health outcomes since ethnic and racial minorities are overrepresented in those poor communities.
States must support pharmacists’ authority to administer vaccines for adult patients on par with their physician colleagues. Pharmacists should be allowed to administer all vaccines approved or authorized by the Food and Drug Administration and vaccines recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Such a move will enhance equity and equitable access to healthcare and drive up that seven percent to a healthier level.
