State Strategies For Engaging And Leveraging Primary Care Providers As COVID-19 Vaccinators

As supply of the COVID-19 vaccine has eclipsed demand in many areas across the country, states are shifting strategies to increase accessibility and engage communities with low vaccine uptake. With over 80 percent of adults receiving care through a regular medical home, primary care providers (PCPs) are critical to reaching the nine percent of surveyed adults who have not received the vaccine but expressed keen interest getting it, as well as the 15 percent with additional questions indicating they would like to “wait and see”. In a recent Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) survey, half of individuals in the “wait and see” group said they would be more likely to get the vaccine if it were offered during a routine medical visit – indicating the critical role PCPs play in this effort. Moreover, surveys show health care providers as the most trusted source of COVID-19 vaccine information for patients, and pediatricians will play an ever-increasing role in vaccinating 12 – 15 year-olds in the near-term and younger children in the longer-term.

To reach those not yet vaccinated for COVID-19, states are shifting away from high-throughput sites and towards convenient community settings such as primary care offices, health clinics, pharmacies, schools, workplaces and mobile or pop-up sites. A key strategy in the next phase of pandemic response is to engage PCPs as trusted resources for vaccinations. The National Governors Association (NGA) and Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy (DukeMargolis) interviewed a sample of states and conducted targeted research to identify promising practices for Governors to engage and leverage PCPs as COVID-19 vaccinators. This report summarizes these findings, providing Governors and state officials with considerations and examples of strategies for leveraging PCPs to increase COVID19 vaccine uptake.

Read the full report here.