PharmScript COVID-19 Vaccine FAQ
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All healthcare workers are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine regardless of insurance coverage. Facility staff being vaccinated must either provide insurance information, indicate that he/she does not have insurance coverage, or indicate he/she is refusing to provide insurance. Insurance Information cannot be left blank.
Employee insurance information (front and back images of ID card) will need to be entered in the PS portal. Insurance collection is not necessary for residents that have PharmScript as their current pharmacy provider. Employees with insurance coverage need the following info added, at a minimum, to the portal: BIN – PCN – GROUP – NAME – DOB – CARDHOLDER ID.
Patients and staff will not be charged for the vaccine. PharmScript receives reimbursement through the recipient’s insurance.
Phase 1 was a pharmacy-led clinic and Phase 2 will entail facility-led vaccine administration overseen by PharmScript staff.
Is there a possibility of extra vaccine doses on our vaccine date? If yes, what are our obligations?
On the assigned vaccine clinic day, PharmScript will provide the appropriate number of doses for administration according to the number of total consent forms received. Please note that consent forms must be entered 48 hours prior to vaccine day. Vaccine preparation is complicated, and this process minimizes unnecessary vaccine waste. If there are extra doses available after all consented residents and staff members have been vaccinated, requests to vaccinate additional individuals may be accommodated, but this must be at the direction of the pharmacy and in alignment with state and federal guidelines.
PharmScript has set up a COVID section in the PS portal which will contain all relevant COIVD-19 documentation. Prior to each clinic date, around three days before, your facility will receive a call from a PharmScript vaccine team member who will answer any questions you may have. We also encourage you to reach out to your CSR or to the vaccine support team at vaccinesupport@pharmscript.com.
Yes, all residents and staff receiving the vaccine must have their temperatures taken prior to vaccine administration. We recommend that the facility check temperatures of the individuals receiving the vaccine and document, including time and reading, on the vaccine administration form. Any individual with a fever greater than 100.4 degrees should not receive the vaccine.
We recommend your COVID-19 testing to be as close as possible to your scheduled clinic dates.
No, there is no limit on the number of residents or employees that can be scheduled at any given clinic. However, we have been informed that vaccine quantities will gradually ramp-up during Phase 2 based on inventory availability from the manufacturer(s). Due to limited availability, facilities may not be able to receive their desired quantities. With this, we recommend setting priorities on how to distribute the vaccines received at each facility. Our recommendation is noted below:
- Residents
- Facility staff with direct patient care responsibilities
- Facility staff without direct patient care responsibilities and volunteers
This is specific to the vaccine manufacturer being used by your pharmacy—based on either a 21- or 28-day cycle.
If a resident is admitted after the cut-off time they’ll be assigned to the next vaccine clinic date. If there happen to be extra vaccine doses available at your clinic, please contact the pharmacy to be led through the proper documentation process.
Yes, we can, assuming they use the same manufacturer.
No, you will just need to delay your second COVID-19 vaccine dose to 90 days post monoclonal antibody treatment.
Receiving certain vaccines, primarily the seasonal influenza vaccine, may increase the risk of Guillain-Barre syndrome. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) lists history of GuillainBarre syndrome as a precaution to consider when receiving vaccines, but not a contraindication.
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/acip-recs/general-recs/contraindications.html
There is currently limited data available about the risk of Guillain-Barre
with COVID-19 vaccines. The FDA-approved package insert for PfizerBioNtech COVID-19 vaccine does not mention GBS as a risk. Please note that Dr. Anthony Fauci (Director of NIH) has recommended that patients with a history of Guillain-Barre avoid the COVID-19 vaccine until there is further understanding of the relative risk versus benefit for these patients.
If someone had a recent TST, they should still receive the COVID-19 vaccine. The only concern is if the TST is placed in proximity to where the COVID-19 vaccine was administered because the person reading the TST may not be able to clearly determine a positive TST versus the vaccine local reaction. Therefore, the TST should be placed in a different location from the site of the COVID-19 vaccine administration, if happening concurrently.
Given the lack of data on the safety and efficacy of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines administered simultaneously with other vaccines, the vaccine series should routinely be administered alone, with a minimum interval of 14 days before or after administration with any other vaccine. However, mRNA COVID-19 and other vaccines may be administered within a shorter period in situations where the benefits of vaccination are deemed to outweigh the potential unknown risks of vaccine coadministration (e.g., tetanus toxoid-containing vaccination as part of wound management, rabies vaccination for post-exposure prophylaxis, measles or hepatitis A vaccination during an outbreak) or to avoid barriers or delays to mRNA COVID-19 vaccination (e.g., in long-term care facility residents or healthcare personnel who received influenza or other vaccinations prior to/upon admission or onboarding). If mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are administered within 14 days of another vaccine, doses do not need to be repeated for either vaccine.
No. The COVID-19 will be the only vaccine offered during the clinic dates.
The COVID-19 vaccine has been approved through an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA). The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has determined that the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine meets the required safety and effectiveness standards. PharmScript will continue to follow the CDC’s Guidance for Immunization Services. There have not been unique studies in different populations, such as autistic young adults or young adults with seizure disorders.
For Phase 2, we anticipate being able to receive COVID-19 vaccines as soon as March 1, 2021. When we receive more information we will reach out to schedule your vaccine clinic dates.
PharmScript will deliver the vaccines in a cooler and ask that facilities administer within six hours. If facilities are unable to administer the vaccines within six hours, facilities will be responsible for storing the vaccines in a monitored medication refrigerator. Administration must be done within 24 hours of receipt. More instructions to follow based on your facility’s delivery times and administration needs.
The vaccine will arrive with your regular scheduled AM delivery on your specified delivery date for vaccines.
State and federal reporting requirements for vaccine administration of the COVID-19 vaccine are handled by PharmScript and reported within 24 hours. It will be imperative that your facility provide completed administration forms for all doses given by end of the business day to assigned CSR in order to submit documentation to State and Federal entities.
Any forms or registration specific to this program will be communicated directly from the pharmacy to your building to ensure compliance.
The process for documenting verbal approval is noted in section 3 of the COVID-19 vaccine consent form.
We will be providing the consent form in English, Spanish, and Korean. We will distribute the alternative language consent forms upon request.
Facilities can send consent forms in bulk or individually. We will enter information on our end as they come our way.
As part of the vaccine provider agreement, upon administration of a COVID-19 vaccine dose, the pharmacy is required to submit certain information directly to state and federal agencies. Our consent and screening form is designed to capture the necessary information and thus the facility must utilize and submit the pharmacy-provided consent form. With that being said, facilities should have the ability to complete our form with a wet signature and then scan that document into the EHR for their records.
Consent forms will be made available prior to the clinic date through the PS portal. Consent forms will not be accepted during scheduled clinics.
Yes, this is hosted on the PS portal.
Vaccine cards will be mailed directly to the DON following the vaccine clinic
Due to limited availability, facilities may not be able to receive their desired quantities. With this, we recommend setting priorities on how to distribute the vaccines received at each facility. Our recommendation is noted below:
- Residents
- Facility staff with direct patient care responsibilities
- Facility staff without direct patient care responsibilities and volunteers
This will be handed on a resident-by-resident basis. We will do our best to leverage our network to take care of all residents.
According to the CDC, the second dose should be administered as close to the recommended interval as possible. However, if it is not feasible to adhere to the recommended interval and a delay in vaccination is unavoidable, the second dose of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines may be administered up to 6 weeks (42 days) after the first dose. There are currently limited data on the efficacy of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines administered beyond this window. If the second dose is administered beyond these intervals, there is no need to restart the series.
Discharged residents and former employees can come back to the facility at your next clinic and get the subsequent doses. Patients and employees will also receive a vaccination card and optional reminder card.
New hires and new admissions will be vaccinated during the next clinic date. New hires and admissions will receive their doses on the next vaccine delivery date provided consents were submitted 48 hours prior to their designated monthly delivery date.
These residents may still be vaccinated but should be done by the staff caring for them in quarantine.
No, residents do not have to wait 90 days post COVID-19 diagnosis to receive the vaccine. The CDC did release guidance that individuals may elect to wait 90 days to receive the vaccine as natural immunity is likely to persist for that time period. However, as long as an individual has recovered from COVID they are eligible to receive the vaccine.
Vaccine administration should be deferred if the patient tested positive until the patient recovers from acute illness and criteria have been met to discontinue isolation.
- For symptomatic patients: For most persons with COVID-19 illness, isolation and precautions can generally be discontinued 10 days after symptom onset and resolution of fever for at least 24 hours, without the use of fever-reducing medications, and with improvement of other symptoms.
- For asymptomatic patients: For persons who never develop symptoms, isolation and other precautions can be discontinued 10 days after the date of their first positive RT-PCR test for SARSCoV-2 RNA.
Yes, all facility employees are eligible to receive vaccination as part of Phase 1 and 2 of Operation Warp Speed.
At this time, all frontline workers are able to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Unfortunately, we do not have the authorization to immunize anyone outside of the patient, facility staff, and PharmScript staff. Even if you have received a COVID-19 vaccine you should continue taking proper safety precautions—face covering, keep distance between yourself and others (within about 6 feet), actively wash your hands, etc.
PharmScript will supply the vaccine to patients and staff in long-term care facilities.
The COVID-19 vaccine contains a small snippet of RNA which encodes the instructions for producing the coronavirus “spike” protein, a protein that helps the virus invade healthy cells. The vaccine recipient’s own cells will make some of this specific protein to elicit the body to produce an immune response. Currently available COVID-19 assays test for the presence of genetic material (DNA) or other proteins, and not the spike protein, and thus should not produce a false positive test result. Essentially, the COVID tests look for different proteins than the one injected in the vaccine, so one should not receive a false-positive result on a test. However, the manufactures of the vaccine have not released any official guidance on this question.
No, the COVID-19 vaccine does not contain cells from aborted fetuses. MRNA vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna) are synthetic vaccines, sequenced on a computer in a lab, and do not use fetal cells in their production. https://factcheckni.org/articles/covid-19-vaccinesand-aborted-fetuses/
Through an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has determined that the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine meets the required safety and effectiveness standards. PharmScript will continue to follow the CDC’s Guidance for Immunization Services.
Every vaccine has distinct clinical profiles, therefore causing certain clinical considerations and uncertainties. For the COVID-19 vaccine, by understanding these considerations PharmScript is better able to plan and prepare for administration. Some of these considerations consist of:
- Vaccine efficacy, safety, age of vaccine recipient, duration of
immunity, route of administration, history of anaphylactic reactions - Dosing frequency and tracking
- Shipping/storage requirements
- Compounding requirements
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the COVID-19 vaccine will help our bodies develop immunity to the virus that causes COVID-19 without us having to get the illness. Different types of vaccines work in different ways to offer protection, but with all types of vaccines, the body is left with the ability to remember how to fight that virus in the future. Experts are still learning how long these memory cells protect a person against the virus that causes COVID-19. An answer to this question will help determine the frequency that is needed to sustain immunity.