$6m payday from HPV vaccine register

GPs stand to share in more than $6 million in incentive payments for supplying data to the new HPV vaccination register due to start in June.

However, it was unknown how many might miss out because they failed to store the required data over the past eight months while the register was being set up, AGPN immunisation spokesman Dr Greg Rowles said.

He urged GPs to ensure they continued to store the minimum data required on all women receiving HPV vaccination under the government-funded program.

“An estimated one million doses of vaccine have been given by GPs, so that’s $6 million for GPs that will be available.”

An estimated 2.2 million doses of vaccine have been distributed in Australia, one million of which have been delivered by GPs to 12- to 18-year-old girls not vaccinated at school, and to women aged 18 to 26 years in the catch-up program.

The federal health department said that the National HPV Vaccination Program Register would be operational from June 2008 and fully established by early 2009.

GPs would receive an incentive payment of $6.60 (including GST) for every notification of a vaccination event of an eligible woman which was lodged with the register.

A contract had been signed with the Victorian Cytology Service (VCS), Melbourne, for the development and operation of the register until 2010, a health department spokesman said.

“Negotiations are underway to allow VCS to begin collecting data from GPs and for the associated incentive payments to be made,” the spokesman said.

Dr Rowles, a Victorian GP and AGPN representative on the National Immunisation Committee, said after June the register would gradually and progressively – possibly state-by-state – begin accepting and entering the GP data backlog.

The minimum data set required to qualify for the payment was available at www.agpn.com.au.

Dr Rowles said it had been suggested last year that payments would only be made for vaccinations in girls up to 18 years of age, however the AGPN urged GPs last July to store data on women aged up to 26 years until the legislation was clarified (MO, 6 July 2007).