As many regular readers of P&T know, I often scan the literature  of reports from the private sector and select some of these for my editorials. Recently, a report from the national BlueCross BlueShield Association (BCBSA) crossed my desk and appears to have important implications for P&T committee members in different sectors.

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We found that among Medicaid children in a managed care program, who were assigned to a primary care case manager physician, up-to-date immunization rates at 18 months were still low. Age appropriate immunization rates were even lower. The temporal patterns of immunizations indicated that compliance with the immunization schedule faltered after the second month of [...]

Continue reading " TIMELINESS OF IMMUNIZATIONS OF CHILDREN IN A MEDICAID PRIMARY: DISCUSSION "

Among the 5,598 children studied, most were African-American (73.4%), approximately one-half were male (51%), and most mothers were in the 20 years and over age group. The designated primary care providers included public health providers (9.3%), and private providers (90.7%). Private providers included family practitioners (10.7%), pediatricians (78.3%), and other specialists. Of the 5,598 children, [...]

Continue reading " TIMELINESS OF IMMUNIZATIONS OF CHILDREN IN A MEDICAID PRIMARY: RESULTS "

Rates of immunization for 5,598 children who were moved from fee-for-service care to a newly implemented primary care case management managed care program were reviewed in 1995 as part of the Quality Assessment and Improvement Project for Medicaid Managed Care in Virginia. Managed care was implemented for Virginia’s Medicaid population through a staged geographic approach. [...]

Continue reading " TIMELINESS OF IMMUNIZATIONS OF CHILDREN IN A MEDICAID PRIMARY: METHODS "

INTRODUCTION
Although childhood immunization is a primary disease prevention strategy, children, especially low-income children, often do not receive their vaccinations on time. Up to 40% of two-year-olds do not receive their immunizations at age-appropriate intervals. During the last two decades, sporadic outbreaks of measles in the U.S. affected thousands of children and the number of cases [...]

Continue reading " TIMELINESS OF IMMUNIZATIONS OF CHILDREN IN A MEDICAID PRIMARY "

Our data suggest that, independent of other risk factors, black race is linked to the occurrence of BV/intermediate vaginal flora. Race is also independently associated with an absence of H202+ lactobacilli and the presence of G. vaginalis, M. hominis, Gram negative pigmented or non-pigmented anaerobic rods, and Mobiluncus morphotypes from the vagina, as well as [...]

Continue reading " CAN KNOWN RISK FACTORS EXPLAIN RACIAL: DISCUSSION "

Nine hundred (79.3%) women in this analysis were African American and 235 (20.7%) were non-Hispanic white (Table 1). Many characteristics differed between black women and whites including that blacks were less likely to have any education past high school or family incomes >$20,000, to be current smokers, and to have more than one sexual partner [...]

Continue reading " CAN KNOWN RISK FACTORS EXPLAIN RACIAL: RESULTS "