Responding to criticism that attacks his company’s role in the state’s new COVID vaccine plan, Blue Shield’s CEO says his team can help California improve its distribution system by closely monitoring where the vaccine is at all times – since when the federal government allocates it to the state where the shots actually go in the arms.
“We are really well set up to make a successful effort,” said CEO Paul Markovich during a webinar on Friday organized by Singer Associates, a public relations firm in crisis sparked when the Oakland-based company was flooded with criticism by enter the state vaccination program.
California recently asked the insurance giant for help deciding where to distribute the Golden State vaccine, which sparked a wave of protests from county and community health clinics that claim the company’s role will slow down the way vaccines are delivered. Counties almost universally refused to sign contracts with Blue Shield, pushing for agreements with the state.
On Friday, Markovich said that if counties want to make deals with the state instead of his company, “that’s fine with us.”
Despite this, the company, which signed a contract to be the vaccine consultant for the state, is positioned to play an important role in the distribution of vaccines, which should be much more centralized. Instead of counties receiving the vaccine and then deciding which clinics and hospitals to send it to, the state, with the help of Blue Shield, says it plans to specify where the vaccine should go and track the process.
“We felt that we could help save lives,” said Markovich. “What we think we can do better to help is to ensure that the state and all local health jurisdictions know where the vaccine is at all times.”
Health officials and nonprofit organizations in Santa Clara County, in particular, have refused Blue Shield’s involvement and the possibility of losing local control.
County executive Jeff Smith said on Friday that his team and Los Angeles County are negotiating with the state to try to reach an agreement that will allow the two counties to maintain control of the distribution process within their borders. No such agreement is in place yet.
“We have the local knowledge, relationships and infrastructure already in place to do the job,” said supervisor Susan Ellenberg during a news conference this week, surrounded by leaders of community health clinics concerned with the vaccine supply – which they currently get from the county – it could be cut under the new system.
But Markovich pointed to a shortage of supplies that the county experienced recently, which forced him to stop scheduling first dose appointments, as a problem that he believes the company can help solve.
“The state did not have accurate and up-to-date inventory numbers by individual provider and it has not so far,” he said, “and as a result, some of the big providers like the University of California and Sutter started to run out of vaccines and were not receiving doses allocated by the state at the level they needed to fulfill second dose appointments, because the state in its data thought these organizations had too much inventory. But, in fact, they didn’t.
“And then, when we found out that was the case, we ended up trying to give these organizations a lot more doses to try to honor those nominations,” continued Markovich. “But in the meantime, it actually created a shortage elsewhere – as Santa Clara County ended up receiving fewer doses than they expected from Moderna and then had a second dose shortage. And so, the ability to know where the vaccine is at all times, to know the inventory of each provider, allows for a much smoother and more predictable manageable system. “
According to Markovich, California has the capacity to deliver more than 7.5 million doses of vaccine per week, but recently the supply has approached 1.6 million doses. The state, he said, expects to reach north of 2.5 million doses a week by April, and that number could rise to 4 million a week, as vaccine manufacturers make more doses.
“Capacity is simply not an issue,” he said. “We have more supply restrictions.”
Blue Shield, which can charge the state up to $ 15 million in expenses, is also expected to send performance management reports evaluating the performance of various providers in terms of sending the photos they receive for the weapons and sending details of several weeks about the weapons. vaccine supply providers can expect to avoid the types of cancellations that have affected deployment so far.
Although Blue Shield says it will focus specifically on equity and getting the vaccine for the most vulnerable, some Bay Area organizations that work with vulnerable populations are skeptical, pointing out that they have long-standing relationships with local leaders, but are not with the company.
Sarita Kohli, CEO of the community health organization AACI, said that working with Santa Clara County has been a success.
“It happens quickly and efficiently, and this system has worked very, very well,” she said. “We are not going to try to fix something that is not broken.”
Fiona Kelliher contributed reporting.