Virginia Vaccines for Children

Manager: Jovonni Spinner, MPH, CHES

The Virginia Vaccines For Children (VVFC) program is a federal program established in 1994 to help raise childhood immunization rates in Virginia. Cost of vaccine and location of providers were determined to be barriers to immunization. Through partnerships with physicians, the VVFC program is designed to reduce the effects of these barriers. VVFC provides federally purchased vaccine, at no cost to health care providers, for administration to eligible children.

VVFC currently has over 800 facilities enrolled in the program as either a private facility or a public facility. To be eligible for free vaccine from the VVFC program, children :

Eligibility for free vaccination:
Must be under 19 years of age and meet at least one of the following criteria

• Medicaid, enrolled, including Medicaid HMOs,
• Uninsured (those without health insurance)
• Native American or Native Alaskans (no proof required) and
• Underinsured (those whose insurance does not cover immunizations) (only at FQHCs or RHCs).

To qualify as a public facility, a provider must be one of the following:

• Public Health Department
• Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC):
  A center that provides health care to a medically underserved population may apply to the Bureau of Primary Health Care (BPHC) within the Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA) for FQHC status. FQHCs include community and migrant health centers, special health facilities such as those for the homeless and persons with AIDS that receive grants under the Public Health Service Act, and "look-alikes" which meet qualifications, but do not actually receive grant funds.
• Rural Health Clinic (RHC)
  A provider class under the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) that must meet certain qualifications for services provided and staffing.

VVFC distributes vaccines to private and public providers free of charge. A provider may not charge for the vaccine itself, but is permitted to charge an administration fee.

If you have any questions about VVFC, please call 1-800-568-1929 or 1-804-864-8055.

---