Do pediatricians generate a significant portion of their profits by pushing vaccines? If so, what role do insurance companies play in that scheme?
Or, as The New York Times recently reported, is the opposite true — are vaccines a “money pit” for doctors?
In a July 15 article, the Times took issue with a comment made by U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., during a June 30 interview with Tucker Carlson. Kennedy told Carlson that there are “perverse incentives” for pediatricians to push vaccines.
The Times article featured a doctor who couldn’t afford to offer vaccines, and comments from leadership at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) who said statements like the one Kennedy made during his interview with Carlson are “misleading and dangerous.”
The AAP also responded on X, linking to the Times article, with a picture of Kennedy and the comment: “Pediatricians do not profit off vaccines.” In a Facebook post, the AAP said, “As The New York Times explains, most pediatricians either break even or even lose money when they offer vaccines.”
Ryan Champlin, who coordinates vaccine purchasing contracts for doctors at Cook Children’s Health Care System in Texas, told The Defender that incentives for vaccination are typically linked to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) childhood immunization schedule.
Champlin said doctors get the extra payments when a certain percentage of their patients — typically 80% or more — take all of the vaccines on the schedule.
The Times article, despite its criticism of Kennedy’s “perverse incentives” comment, acknowledged that about half of pediatricians have “value-based contracts” with insurers, an insurance reimbursement model that rewards providers with extra payments for hitting specific metrics that are considered markers for “quality of care.”
According to Children’s Health Defense CEO Mary Holland, these types of incentives have “completely distorted pediatric care in America.”
Hellbound and Down 