Reimbursement to clinics that provided mpox vaccines

Some clinics in California that offered vaccines for mpox, formerly called monkeypox, are still waiting for state and federal reimbursement for services.

This comes as the federal government ends the state of emergency for the virus.

During the height of mpox, Riverside County worked with several partners to distribute thousands of vaccines for it. 

The spokesperson for the county's health department, Jose Arballo, said reimbursement for distributing the mpox vaccine can look different for every clinic that took part. 

"We really hadn't heard anything from our partners about any lack of reimbursement. It doesn't mean that it isn't happening at this point, but it has reached our level yet," said Arballo. "It depends on who's who's getting it, what they provided, what services they provided, whether it was a direct cost to them, or indirect."

One of the county's partners was DAP Health. The health center said it has been reimbursed for administering the mpox vaccines. The vaccines were free for the center, and the operational costs were covered by a grant from the Desert Healthcare District. 

However, the county said this might not be the case for every partner. 

"It's always a slow process, regardless of whatever illness it is or where it's coming from, whether it's the federal government or state government," said Arballo.

The county has not received any complaints. 

"We'll probably do some reaching out to see how the processes going and to see whether there are some issues that we need to address or can help with our partners," said Arballo.

Other county partners include Borrego Health and Eisenhower Health. News Channel 3 has not heard back from them.