L.A. Care Health Plan, the largest publicly operated health plan in the U.S., is offering financial incentives for providers to help accelerate vaccination rates among unvaccinated members.
The COVID-19 Educate and Vaccinate Program has the potential to reach up to 80,000 L.A. Care members. According to the organization’s data, only 58% of its Medi-Cal members have received at least one dose.
The insurer has also rolled out incentives directly to members. Last November, the health plan offered eligible members the chance to earn a $50 gift card. Since then, more than 60,000 members have been vaccinated, according to the organization. Then, in December, it also launched a similar program for independent community pharmacists.
These efforts are a way to “put our money where our mouth is,” L.A. Care Chief Medical Officer Richard Seidman, M.D. said in an interview with Fierce Healthcare. He acknowledged it “takes multiple different efforts and channels” to address the care gaps. “No one thing is the magic bullet that solves the problem.”
On the day the initiative was announced, L.A. Care received calls from five physicians who were interested in participating, the insurer said.
Individual primary care physicians serving 500 or more L.A. Care members and working with the health plan through independent practice associations can enroll in the program and will be eligible for the incentive for each member that gets their first dose from now until April 30.
They will receive a list of their unvaccinated patients, after which L.A. Care hopes they will engage in outreach and public health education to change their minds about the vaccine. The patients do not have to receive the vaccine in a physician’s office for the dose to count toward the incentive.
The health plan was prepared to launch such value-based incentives because it knew from early on in the pandemic there would inevitably be hesitancy, said Seidman.
Physicians are the “most persistent, trusted sources of truth” to try to combat the misinformation or trust issues underlying hesitancy. Those disproportionately affected by the virus and with lower vaccination rates tend to be low-income people of color, many of whom are Medi-Cal members.