Vaccine moves OK'd

Jay County Commissioners gave approval to two measures today to help support immunization service through the Jay County Health Department.
Jay County Health Officer Dr. Stephen Myron asked commissioners to sign a letter of attest to obtain Medicaid and Medicare billing numbers for immunization and to approve use of grant funds to purchase new equipment for the immunization clinic.
“We give a lot of immunizations at the health department,” Myron said.
Myron explained that if the county obtains a billing number for Medicare and Medicaid, the health department could receive reimbursement for the vaccines given since some shots are pricy. For example, a vaccine for shingles runs about $165, Myron said.
Since the immunization clinic is funded by grant dollars, Myron said the ability to bill the government health programs could provide a backup source of funding.
“It’ll also help protect the clinic,” he said. “Someday those grants could go away.”
 “I don’t have a problem with it,” commissioner Milo Miller Jr. said regarding Myron’s requests.
The commissioners told Myron that Jay County Auditor Nancy Culy will draft the letter for him.
Myron also asked commissioners to approve purchasing a new vaccine freezer, computer equipment and supplies to assist in an electronic vaccine data-base. The purchases will be made with grant funds.
“We’ve gotten very specialized equipment to do immunizations,” Myron said of a vaccine refrigerator and other supplies that were purchased in September 2009. “We continue to need to upgrade our equipment and we’ve got a grant to do that.”
Health department registrar Peggy Atkinson explained that the state will reimburse the department after the purchases are made and that there are adequate grant dollars to make the purchases totaling $7,111.
In other business this morning, the commissioners:
•Made four appointments and reappointments to the Community Corrections advisory board. Those appointments include Tom Diller, Chad Dodd, Nat Bryan and Faron Parr.
•Approved two emergency claims of $104.13 and $115.20 for travel expenses for the auditor’s office.
•Signed a resolution waiving the county’s $1.633 million allocation of recovery zone bonds from the federal stimulus program.
Jay County Development Corporation Executive Director Bill Bradley said the county’s bonds and bonds from other counties will be pooled together and used by The Andersons for an expansion project.
Bradley said he has not been able to find a company that was interested in utilizing the capital improvement bonds and that The Andersons project should benefit the company’s Dunkirk location.
•Received information from a representative of First Group Engineering, Indianapolis, about design and surveying services offered by the company.[[In-content Ad]]