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Registry Investment Could Save Education System Money
More than $168 million in expenditures by this country's education system could be offset each year, if a nationwide network of state- and local immunization registries were in place, says a letter to the editor published in the February issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine (Am J Prev Med 2001; 20(2): 174). These cost offsets are in addition to the previously identified $113.8 million that such a system would save for the health care system each year. The total offset to the health and education systems would be more than $280 million annually.
The letter to the editor was written by Philip R. Horne, Kristin N. Saarlas, and Alan R. Hinman of All Kids Count, authors of the study published previously in AJPM on costs and cost offsets of immunization registries for the health care system ("Costs of Immunization Registries: Experiences from the All Kids Count II Projects," Am J Prev Med 2000; 19(2): 94-98). The authors note that "investing in registries seems both operationally and financially prudent" when the savings are compared with the estimated annual cost of approximately $100 million for a nationwide system of registries.
The magnitude of the cost offsets would result from eliminating the manual retrieval of immunization records for all children entering schools, day care and Head Start programs, as required by law.
The information on cost offsets to the education system was reported by 43 state and four city/local National Immunization Program projects.
Source: Terry Hastings, All Kids Count, thastings@taskforce.org.