Blue Shield vows to speed up California vaccine distribution

SACRAMENTO — Blue Shield of California will create an algorithm to determine where to allocate COVID-19 vaccines statewide with the goal of being able to administer 3 million shots a week by March 1, according to a contract made public Monday that grants the insurance giant far-reaching powers in overseeing the state’s distribution of doses.

The company will attempt to drastically scale up the number of daily doses, but that goal will largely depend on the supply sent to the state. California received a little more than 1 million vaccine doses in the last week from the federal government.

Blue Shield, which wields considerable influence in state politics, will immediately work to centralize the state’s COVID19 vaccination program after a sluggish start due to a lack of available doses, complex regulations dictating which Californians should be prioritized, and data reporting issues.

The contract says Blue Shield’s algorithm will prioritize vaccine distribution with “a focus on equity” throughout the state and will be updated based on vaccine availability and COVID-19 rates. Few other details about the algorithm were available Monday.

Under the contract, Blue Shield also has wide latitude to select which healthcare providers and counties will continue to receive and administer doses in California as part of a vaccine network.

“We are changing a process midstream and my hope is that this becomes easier and not more bureaucratic and difficult for clinics in my community to serve their client populations,” L.A. County Supervisor Holly Mitchell said in an interview Monday. “This is not the solution L.A. County needs. L.A. County needs more vaccine and the flexibility to distribute it more equitably.”

The state’s decision to put Blue Shield at the helm removes key decision-making on vaccine administration from the purview of counties just as California’s vaccination efforts have begun to take off. More than 6 million doses have been administered in the state, with California now averaging a million vaccines a week, Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a tweet Monday.

Kaiser Permanente, which provides healthcare services for more than 9 million Californians, is expected to sign a separate contract with the state to run a vaccination program for its members while overseeing two or more mass vaccination sites and helping to vaccinate “hard-toreach and disproportionally impacted populations,” according to a letter of intent released Jan. 29.

Both companies have agreed that they will run the programs at or near cost and “will not profit,” according to the letters of intent. Blue Shield’s contract stipulates that the company cannot bill the state for more than $15 million during the contract term for out-of-pocket costs.