Thursday, April 10, 2025
4/10/2025
Eliminating Barriers to Immunization through State Interagency and Community Collaboration - Project Abstract: CDC-RFA-IP-23-0002 Immunization Barriers in the United States: Targeting Medicaid Partnerships NASHP, AcademyHealth, AIM and AIRA Project: Eliminating Barriers to Immunization through State Interagency and Community Collaboration Despite enhanced coverage through Medicaid and the Vaccines for Children Program, low-income children, adolescents, adults, and pregnant people continue to have lower estimated vaccination rates than those above poverty level. Interagency and multi-stakeholder collaboration with Medicaid programs can strengthen their ability to understand and address barriers to improving immunization rates among these vulnerable populations, including immunization information systems interoperability, provider scope of practice, among others. Now, facing documented COVID-19 fatigue and an increasingly hostile immunization environment, it will be especially valuable to address the potential health implications from delayed vaccination schedules and well-child visits. National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) and AcademyHealth, in potential partnership with the Association of Immunization Managers (AIM) and the American Immunization Registry Association (AIRA), propose forming a new “Vaccine Information Sharing and Education Resource” Network (VISER Network). We will build on our previously CDC-funded project with two new proposed workstreams. This proposal aims to engage with Vaccine Access Cooperative (VAC) members, the Medicaid Medical Directors Network (MMDN), and other Medicaid stakeholders using a multi-faceted strategy to enhance collaborative immunization efforts across pertinent state agencies and improve immunization rates for all Medicaid covered lives. Leveraging Partnerships to Immunize Against Vaccine-Preventable Respiratory Disease: VISER Learning Network: Building on momentum and partnerships generated through previous regional VAC meetings, the VISER Learning Network will engage cross-agency and multi-sector VAC participants in an ongoing learning network focused on disseminating evidence-based information, sharing promising and best practices to improve vaccination rates, and discussing emerging issues related to vaccine-preventable respiratory conditions. Leveraging this new coalition of partners with renewed energy and interest in improving vaccination rates, the Vaccine-Preventable Respiratory Disease Learning Network will hold monthly learning network calls that present timely information and share strategies to improve vaccination rates for vaccine-preventable respiratory conditions across the lifespan. Technical Assistance to Address Barriers to Information Exchange and Collaboration Between Medicaid Programs and Public Health: In-depth Policy Consultations: The project team will focus on addressing policy, technical, and organizational barriers to information exchange between state Medicaid information systems and IIS. Improving bi-directional information exchange between Medicaid and immunization programs is critical to understanding and addressing vaccination coverage and gaps and supporting IIS infrastructure through federal matching funds. The VISER Network will launch an opportunity for up to six cross-agency state teams (two cycles of three states each) to receive in-depth technical assistance on specific goals related to connecting IIS and Medicaid programs to share immunization data between agencies and support IIS infrastructure.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).