AP Baby

#1... pediatricians are pushy about vaccinating because they make so much money from vaccines. Reality? Nope.

Recently a physician who has a 20-person practice calculated that they would spend $2 million on Gardasil to be able to give it to everyone in the age range who needed it. If they don’t generate $2,010,000 back, he’s lost money because it wasn’t just the outlay for the purchase of the vaccine. There was the refrigerator, the utilization of space by that refrigerator, the cost of the generator, the cost of the security system, and then everything else that goes into giving the vaccine. The AAP has come out with a business case for pricing vaccines. They talk about the average wholesale price [AWP] and average sale price [ASP]. What we are saying is that the range to break even above the actual cost is anywhere from 17% to 28%. Managed care companies are not giving you that and certainly vaccines have become, at this point in time, the major issue between pediatricians and managed care. The line has been drawn in the sand, and many pediatricians have said, ‘I can’t keep losing money. This is it. You give this to me or,’ as Stan said, ‘I’m not going to purchase it. I can’t give it. It’s a problem.’