Collin County not being frugal in distribution of H1N1 vaccine

by Bill Baumbach of The Collin County Observer

Collin County's Department of Homeland Security is responsible for running court house security, The Fire Marshall's office, the North Central Texas Fusion Center, and terrorism and disaster response.

On its web page, the Homeland Security Department lists another core function, "Developing and managing state and federal grant funding for emergency management, homeland security and bioterrorism programs."

It is in gaining and spending grant money, or as I'll call it OPM (Other People's Money) that the Homeland Security folks are masters.

According to a presentation (PDF) given to the commissioners court earlier this year, the DHS has managed to garner over $13 million in grant funds (OPM) since 2003.

UASI (Urban Area Security Initiative), SHSG (State Homeland Security Grant), and LETPP (Law Enforcement Terrorism Prevention) grants were used for construction of the Fusion Center, law enforcement radios, phones and communication systems, and disaster preparedness programs.

The PHEP (Public Health Emergency Preparedness) is a grant from the Centers for Disease Control for Bio Terrorism and epidemiology. In 2006, 2007 and 2008, the PHEP grant included a total of about $1 million for pandemic flu planning.

The PHER (Public Health Emergency Response) grant is a state grant for pandemic H1N1 flu response. This year, Collin County has already received a PHER grant of $707,309 to be used to plan for mass H1N1 immunizations. The commissioners court is expected to approve another PHER grant request for an additional $1,166,545 to be used to distribute the flu vaccine to targeted populations.

Collin County has applied for 15,500 H1N1 flu vaccine doses; 2,500 will be for critical response and infrastructure such as police and emergency workers. The balance is planned for distribution to uninsured, high risk citizens. To date, the county has only received 500 doses of the H1N1 flu vaccine. It is likely that the county will only receive about 6,000 doses before the end of the flu season.

Homeland Security had already been awarded over $1 million from 2006-2008 to plan for a flu pandemic. In addition, it received another $700,000 this year, and it says it need yet another $1.16 million in order to distribute the vaccine.

Since the federal and state government bear the cost of the vaccine itself, the county will spend no money to actually acquire the H1N1 flu vaccine. It will however spend almost $3 million in overhead costs to plan and execute the distribution of the flu shots.

That $3 million is all grant money, or OPM.

If the county were to receive ALL the doses it has asked for, the OPM overhead cost of planning is over $190 per dose for distribution. If, as is the more likely scenario, it only gets 6,000 doses, the cost in OPM per dose will be $500.

So how complicated is the distribution?

Well, so far the county plans to send some doses to area hospitals for their staff, but most of the available vaccines would be allocated to the county's own health clinic and to other area clinics. The county has already made an agreement with the Collin County Adult Clinic to distribute up to 2,600 doses at a cost of $19.20 each. The county plans similar agreements with other local clinics.

Most of us in Collin County will get the vaccination from our personal physician. Your doctor will also get the dose for free from the federal government, and he will only be able to charge the insurance company somewhat less than $50. My doctor will offer the shot for a flat $20 fee. Collin County will be responsible for vaccinating critical staff as well as the indigent and uninsured.

Its only the flagrant use of OPM that permits this normally-frugal county government to spend $500 on something that will cost it less than $20.

Collin County prides itself on its efficient use of taxpayer's dollars. It has no similar attitude when it comes to spending OPM ... even if that OPM is taxpayer's dollars.

The county's Homeland Security Department is expert at finding and spending huge sums of OPM grant funds, often with little result.