a news release<\/a> published Tuesday.<\/p>\n\u201cInformed consent is back,\u201d Acting Director and Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O\u2019Neil said. \u201cCDC\u2019s 2022 blanket recommendation for perpetual COVID-19 boosters deterred health care providers from talking about the risks and benefits of vaccination for the individual patient or parent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jen Kates, senior vice president and director of global health and HIV policy at the nonpartisan health policy organization KFF, explained the CDC is recommending that \u201cthere should be an interaction between the individual and a provider\u201d when a COVID-19 vaccination is being considered.<\/p>\n
That doesn\u2019t mean that patients have to scramble to go to a primary care doctor\u2019s office, she said, but it could create an \u201cextra step\u201d for patients who want to get vaccinated.<\/p>\n
\u201cA provider is defined broadly. That could be your pharmacist, it doesn\u2019t have to be your primary care doctor. You don\u2019t have to get a doctor\u2019s visit in most states,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The bottom line, Kates said, is that, \u201cYou should be able to go to your pharmacist and have the pharmacist talk with you and then decide through that shared discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n
The key may be how pharmacists or insurance providers interpret the updated language in the CDC\u2019s recommendation.<\/p>\n
Kates said when it comes to insurance coverage, \u201cThe requirement under federal law is that any ACIP-recommended \u2014 that\u2019s the advisory committee \u2014 and CDC-adopted recommendation on vaccines has to be covered.\u201d<\/p>\n
That would include private insurance along with Medicare and Medicaid, Kates said. Most large insurance companies have stated they would continue to cover COVID-19 vaccines \u201cat least for the foreseeable future,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In Maryland, for example, Sean O\u2019Donnell, with the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services, explained: \u201cThe Maryland Department of Health has issued a statewide COVID-19 vaccination standing order.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat authorizes qualified health care professionals to follow the most current, evidence-based guidelines as standards,\u201d O\u2019Donnell said. \u201cIn Maryland, that also means that a prescription is not required to get the COVID-19 vaccination.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shannon Dillon, a spokesperson for CVS, said their pharmacists will take part in the decision-making with patients. She said that will consist of simple conversations between the patient and pharmacist.<\/p>\n
Dillon also said its their understanding that most insurance plans will cover the cost of vaccinations for eligible patients and that prescriptions are not required, but they should check with their insurer to be sure.<\/p>\n
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u00a9 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The CDC now recommends COVID-19 vaccination through shared clinical decision-making, emphasizing informed consent and personalized discussions with healthcare…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":286597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[16460,64889,147498,210,12815,67,132,68,2040],"class_list":{"0":"post-286596","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-cdc","9":"tag-covid-19-vaccine","10":"tag-cvs-phramacy","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-kate-ryan","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us","16":"tag-vaccination"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115338754640190768","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}