October 2020

Encourage patients to get flu vaccine with help from CDC toolkit

Flu season is quickly approaching. And fewer than half of Americans get the flu vaccine — well below the national target of 70%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Year	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19
Percentage of U.S. adults who received a flu vaccine (ages 18 and older)	41.7	43.3	37.1	45.3
Percentage of U.S. children who received a flu vaccine (age 6 months through 17)	59.3	59.0	57.9	62.6

During the 2018-2019 flu season, the CDC reported the flu vaccine prevented:

4.4 million flu illnesses
58,000 flu hospitalizations
3,500 flu deaths

A recommendation by a physician, nurse, pharmacist or other health care professional is one of the most important factors influencing a patient’s decision to get a flu vaccine, according to the CDC.
To help health care providers and their patients fight the flu, the CDC developed a Health Care Professional Fight Flu Toolkit** that includes:

Educational materials for patients
Appointment reminder email template
Sample social media content

**Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan doesn’t own or control this website.

No portion of this publication may be copied without the express written permission of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, except that BCBSM participating health care providers may make copies for their personal use. In no event may any portion of this publication be copied or reprinted and used for commercial purposes by any party other than BCBSM.

*CPT codes, descriptions and two-digit numeric modifiers only are copyright 2019 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.