Vaccine Equity For Seniors, CalOptima On Pace For OC's Vulnerable

LAKE FOREST, CA — A new trial program run by CalOptima intends to vaccinate Orange County's most vulnerable residents starting in February, a press release from CalOptima states. This joint effort, known as the COVID-19 Vaccine Equity Pilot Program, will reach those who live in the hardest-hit communities by the pandemic.

As the name states, it is a new program designed to help approximately 20,000 seniors assisted through CalOptima be vaccinated as quickly as possible. It is not yet known how many of these seniors have registered into the Othena App system.

To date, Orange County's online-only vaccination registration program has left many of its senior citizens in the dark. After one month of directing residents over 65 to their Othena vaccination registration app, hundreds of residents have written Patch and shared both stories of frustration and vaccination scheduling victories. By far, there are more stories of the former than the latter.

On the day of the Othena online application's debut, over 100 million hits crashed the server, according to the Orange County Board of Supervisors. The sheer volume of interested parties—a number that took the board of supervisors by surprise—rendered the first days of the application useless. Once people could register, the app makers—a locally run company called Curapatient, founded by Composite Apps—and the county worked to resolve the many problems in the supposed "easy to use" online experience. The county brought in an expert to handle translations for minority groups such as Latinos and Vietnamese residents who could not navigate the system nor its support call centers. Now, with apparent racial disparities among the first vaccinated, according to county vaccination data, the board of supervisors has looked to CalOptima to resolve the vaccination crisis.

Read: Othena Fail: Vaccination Scheduling App Slammed By OC Supervisors | Rancho Santa Margarita, CA Patch

CalOptima, the group which monitors and assists residents on MediCal and Medicaid, is working on getting their patients into the vaccination loop, most recently offering them a potential gift card along with their vaccinations. Taking things one step further, on Friday, the county announced their Vaccine Equity Pilot Program, a joint effort with the OrangeCounty Health Care Agency and CalOptima.

Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do, who chairs both the OC Supervisors and CalOptima, spoke on getting the vaccine to the most vulnerable CalOptima members, many of whom lack access to the internet—an imperative in using the county's Point of Dispensing vaccination sites at Disneyland to the north and Soka University to the south.

“Right now, our focus is getting our seniors vaccinated as soon as possible," Do said in the Friday release. "The (Vaccine Equity Program) will eventually expand to meet the State’s tiered vaccine process to ensure communities impacted by the pandemic get direct access to vaccinations.”

CalOptima and health networks will engage seniors through trusted community messengers and will develop vaccine-related information in linguistically and culturally appropriate ways.“CalOptima was founded specifically to serve the underserved, and this pilot reflects our mission at its core,” said Richard Sanchez, Chief Executive Officer. “In partnership with the County, CalOptima has created an equitable system to deliver 7,000 vaccines per week to providers who can reach out to members most in need. These and all vaccinations will provide hope to stop the spread of COVID-19 and restore the health of our community.”

To date, CalOptima has already vaccinated approximately 75% of the frail participants in our Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE).

Two vaccination events were held on January 21 and 28 through a partnership among CalOptima, the HCA, Mercy Pharmacy Group, and Othena, driven by the critical need to protect PACE participants, according to CalOptima.

Dr. Clayton Chau, Orange County Health Officer and CalOptimal Board Member, discussed the critical need to prioritize the people CalOptima serves.

“Prioritizing this population was critical because they have serious, chronic health conditions that would qualify them for nursing home care if not for the comprehensive services of PACE," Chau said.

CalOptima staff are now collecting data from nursing homes about vaccination rates, they said.

As of January 26, with 52 of 70 facilities reporting, more than 2,600 CalOptima members residing in nursing homes have been vaccinated, out of a total population of about 3,200 members.

According to CalOptima, seniors aged 65 and older may receive the coronavirus vaccine within the next few weeks.

Have you had success or difficulty with registering for the county's Othena App? Tell us your story in the comments or by emailing your Patch editor.