{"id":225470,"date":"2026-02-18T19:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T19:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/?p=225470"},"modified":"2026-02-18T19:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T19:17:08","slug":"us-doctors-will-no-longer-receive-payments-for-vaccinating-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/us-doctors-will-no-longer-receive-payments-for-vaccinating-kids\/","title":{"rendered":"US Doctors Will No Longer Receive Payments for Vaccinating Kids"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US federal government will stop paying physicians<\/a> based on the number of patients they vaccinate, and is urging state health agencies to stop using similar financial incentives.<\/p>\n

In a Dec. 30, 2025, memo to state health officials, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) said it \u201cdoes not tie payment to performance on immunization quality measures in Medicaid and CHIP [Childhood Health Insurance Program] at the federal level<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Under the new policies, CMS will no longer require states to report how many children are vaccinated, but states may continue to voluntarily provide the data.<\/p>\n

CMS stated it will explore options to more strongly encourage informed consent before vaccination and \u201cwill also explore how religious exemptions for vaccinations can be accounted for in the data and the subsequent measures<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.<\/a> welcomed the new policy in a post on X<\/em>, stating that it protects medical freedom and informed consent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis directional change coming from CMS is welcome<\/em>,\u201d said Mary Holland, CEO of Children\u2019s Health Defense<\/em>. \u201cIt helps to put vaccines back into the category of every other medical intervention, which is where they should be<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Writing on Substack<\/em>, research scientist and author James Lyons-Weiler, Ph.D., called CMS\u2019s new policy \u201cthe most consequential federal policy reversal on <\/em>paediatric vaccine incentives<\/em><\/a>\u201d in recent years and \u201cthe beginning of a long-overdue rebalancing<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paediatrician Dr. Michelle Perro said the new policy restores ethics and trust in the practice of vaccinating children.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny time a clinician\u2019s compensation is tied to a specific medical decision, especially one involving children, families reasonably ask, \u2018Is this recommendation for my child, or for a metric?\u2019 Even the appearance of a conflict can erode trust, and trust is the foundation of paediatric care and informed consent<\/em>,\u201d Perro said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Financial incentives distort medical judgment\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Writing for the Gold Report<\/em>, journalist Yudi Sherman of America\u2019s Frontline News<\/em> said the system of financial incentives<\/a> tied to physicians\u2019 vaccination rates \u201chas long been controversial<\/em>\u201d and has adversely affected paediatric practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cParents have complained for years that financial incentives distort medical judgment, leading to high-pressure tactics around childhood vaccinations. Some say doctors push shots parents believe are unnecessary or unsafe. Others report being dismissed from paediatric practices altogether if they decline vaccines<\/em>,\u201d Sherman wrote.<\/p>\n

According to Sherman, the system of financial incentives for vaccinating children \u201ccould be surprisingly lucrative<\/em>.\u201d She cited CMS data showing that the agency paid physicians about $45 for each dose of the covid-19 vaccine administered to a child through Medicare<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdminister the shot at home, and that came with another $40. All told, a doctor could earn around $85 for a single covid-19 shot, with the shot itself supplied at no cost by the federal government<\/em>,\u201d Sherman wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cRoughly half of doctors<\/em>\u201d are beneficiaries of these incentives, \u201cknown as value-based contracts<\/em>.\u201d \u201cThey reward physicians with lump-sum payments for hitting specific metrics, such as vaccination rates. Because those rates are calculated as percentages, doctors who want to keep their numbers high sometimes avoid seeing unvaccinated children altogether<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pressure on physicians to accept such financial incentives is strong, according to a 2021 paper co-authored by Lyons-Weiler and Dr. Paul Thomas, published in the International Journal of Vaccine Theory, Practice, and Research<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

According to Lyons-Weiler, that paper, based on a 30-day billing analysis<\/a> at a large paediatric practice in Oregon, \u201cwhere informed consent is genuinely respected<\/em>,\u201d showed that \u201crefusal of CDC-scheduled vaccines by patients resulted in projected annual losses exceeding one million dollars in one practice \u2013 primarily from forgone administrative fees<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was not hypothetical. It was a documented, measurable penalty for practicing medicine with integrity<\/em>,\u201d Lyons-Weiler wrote.<\/p>\n

According to Dr. Meryl Nass<\/a>, founder of Door to Freedom organization and a former internist, paediatricians often rely on these financial incentives to supplement their income, even though these incentives damage the doctor-patient relationship by prioritizing the needs of insurance companies and the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been told that paediatricians rely on vaccine payments and bonuses to stay in the black<\/em>,\u201d Nass said. \u201cPaediatricians are supposed to be the lowest paid of all doctors. This will eventually have a huge impact on the practice of paediatrics<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Retired paediatrician Dr. Samara Cardenas<\/a> said paediatricians receive financial incentives not just from federal and state government sources, but also from insurers. According to Cardenas, the incentives are designed to increase childhood vaccination rates.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been since the late 90s, when HMOs were founded. They started doing that because they really wanted to get the patients vaccinated \u2026\u2026. so there was always a monetary incentive for doctors to do it because they get paid so little<\/em>,\u201d Cardenas said.<\/p>\n

According to figures from Georgetown University<\/em>\u2019s Center for Children and Families, approximately 40 percent of U.S. children are covered by Medicaid. Cardenas said doctors who treat Medicaid patients \u201cget paid a good amount for doing vaccinations<\/em>\u201d \u2013 approximately \u201c25 cents on a dollar<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t look like a lot, but when you have 2,000 patients and you do all your vaccinations, you get a good amount of money<\/em>,\u201d Cardenas said.<\/p>\n

Cash incentives to vaccinate kids contributed to chronic disease epidemic<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tying payment to vaccination rates can harm paediatrics in several predictable ways, Perro said.<\/p>\n

It can distort the clinical conversation by bypassing shared decision-making between physicians, patients and their families. It erodes trust in paediatric guidance more broadly. And it creates an administrative burden for paediatric practices that have to complete the paperwork required to receive reimbursements.<\/p>\n

Perro added that paediatricians who opt out of these incentives face a \u201ccompetitive disadvantage<\/em>\u201d compared to paediatricians who accept such incentives.<\/p>\n

Holland said the incentives have contributed to the growing childhood chronic disease epidemic in the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese perverse financial incentives to vaccinate children have warped the practice of medicine, putting bonus payments for meeting arbitrary thresholds over an individual child\u2019s health<\/em>,\u201d Holland said. \u201cWe have seen the damage with an exceptional rate of childhood chronic disease.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

States would still be allowed to provide their own financial incentives to doctors. Internal medicine physician Dr. Clayton Baker<\/a> said it is likely that \u201cstates with predominantly Democrat state politics and deeply Pharma\u2013<\/em>captured<\/em><\/a> medical establishments<\/em>\u201d will ignore CMS by continuing to incentivize paediatricians.<\/p>\n

However, \u201cthis modification by CMS may \u2026.\u2026 provide medical freedom-consciousness states greater impetus to stop this practice altogether within their jurisdiction<\/em>,\u201d Baker said.<\/p>\n

Cardenas said paediatricians have a responsibility to provide quality care despite the elimination of federal financial incentives for vaccinating children.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good doctors will do a good job regardless of money<\/em>,\u201d Cardenas said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

yogaesoteric
\nFebruary 18, 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The US federal government will stop paying physicians based on the number of patients they vaccinate, and is urging state health agencies to stop using similar financial incentives. In a Dec. 30, 2025, memo to state health officials, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) said it \u201cdoes not tie payment to performance on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1096],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-225470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-censored-news-health-5127-en-censored-sensational-news-3480-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225470"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":225477,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225470\/revisions\/225477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}