The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Executive Office of Health and Human Services
Department of Public Health
William A. Hinton State Laboratory Institute
305 South Street, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130

Bureau of Infectious Disease
Division of Epidemiology and Immunization
Tel:  (617) 983-6800 
Fax: (617) 983-6840 
www.mass.gov/dph/epi
www.mass.gov/dph/imm

MARYLOU SUDDERS
Secretary
MONICA BHAREL, MD, MPH Commissioner

CHARLES D. BAKER
Governor
KARYN E. POLITO
Lieutenant Governor

From:		Pejman Talebian, MA, MPH, Director
		Immunization Program

		Robert W. Morrison, Vaccine Manager
		Immunization Program

Date:		April 1, 2015

Subject:	Expanded Availability of Hepatitis A, Tdap, and Varicella Vaccines
                   for all Children through 18 Years of Age

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) is pleased to announce the expanded availability of hepatitis A, Tdap, and varicella vaccines effective April 1, 2015 for all children through 18 years of age.  This expanded availability will now allow providers to use state-supplied vaccine to provide catch-up immunizations for those children who did not receive hepatitis A, Tdap, or varicella vaccinations at the recommended ages.

Vaccine Choice
In keeping with the recommendations of the Massachusetts Vaccine Purchasing Advisory Committee (MVPAC), brand choice is available for these vaccines:

Vaccine		Manufacturer			Brand
Hepatitis A		GlaxoSmithKline		Havrix®
			Merck				Vaqta®

Tdap			GlaxoSmithKline		Boostrix®
			Sanofi Pasteur		Adacel®

Varicella		Merck				Varivax®
							ProQuad® (varicella and MMR for 							 children requiring both vaccines)

Vaccine Ordering
When placing vaccine orders for catch up doses of these vaccines, please order only those additional doses that you plan to administer during the next two months.  As you administer doses, MDPH will approve replacement orders based on doses administered during the previous month. 

Insurance Payors
MDPH will be notifying insurance companies of the expanded availability of these vaccines for all children through 18 years of age.  MDPH will ask insurance companies to continue to reimburse providers that privately purchased these vaccines for up to six months or until their private supply is depleted.  It will be up to each company to make that determination.

Please see the accompanying updated Childhood Vaccine Availability Table which is also available on our website at www.state.ma.us/dph/imm under Vaccine Management.

If you have questions regarding this new policy, please contact the Vaccine Unit at 617-983-6828.