If you are traveling in the United States or abroad, we can help with your pre-travel needs.  Addtionally, we are here should you return sick!  There are some issues of how your travel screening will be done.  They are addressed on this page to help with understanding how things can best be arranged and decrease your out of pocket expenses for vaccines and medications.

Insurance Coverage:  Many insurance companies have some coverage for preventative medical care.  It is often only partial coverage, not at the level you expect with other healtcare needs.  Some insurers do not cover preventative medical care.  Please check with your insurance plan to see if the preventative medical care or pre-travel screening is covered.  If you have some health problems that need more attention than just travel screening, other diagnoses may be coded and have better coverage.

This office is a yellow fever vaccine center.  We acquire and report use ot yellow fever vaccination to the Centers for Disease Control.  This vaccine must be obtained in our office and administered in our office.  The cost for the vaccine is determined by the cost of acqusition from the CDC.

Other recommended vaccines and medications for your travel will be perscribed and acquired from you pharmacist.  Although children have insurance coverage for the cost of vaccinations, adults often do not!  Most insurance plans do cover the cost to adminster vaccinations, they do not cover the cost of the vaccine itself through the medical office.  If there is coverage, it will be found on the insurance prescription drug coverage from a pharmacy.  Therefore, if we acquire the vaccine and administer it to you, you will be paying out of pocket for the vaccine, not the administration.  We prefer that you use any prescription drug coverage you may have and reduce your out of pocket expenses.  This is why we give you perscriptions for most of your vaccinations.  The only exceptions to this is the flu (Influenza) and pneumonia (Streptococcal pneumoniae) vaccines which are covered under Medicare from the physician's office. 

We wish these complex issues did not exist and would so like to make this easy for our patients.  Unfortunately, we are not in control of insurers!  Hopefully this information will help clarify some of the details for you.

Vaccinations:  There are many vaccinations available.  It is most helpful if you bring your vaccination history with you.  If you do not have a copy of your vaccination history, your best estimate of vaccines is helpful.  Below is a list of vaccinations you should be able to provide a history for.

Vaccine Type	Series as Child	Revaccination Period	Given in Special Circumstances
Tetnus/Diptheria	Yes (3)	10 years	No
Pertusis	Yes (3)	No/outbreak circumstances	Yes
Mumps	Yes (2)	No	No
Measles	Yes (2)	No/outbreak circumstances	Yes
Rubella	Yes (2)	No	No
Hepatitis A	No	2 injections only	All travelers
Hepatitis B	Yes (3)	Special circumstances only	Yes
Chicken Pox	Yes (1)	No	No
Small Pox	Not currently	Unknown	Yes
Polio	Yes (2)	Once if going to endemic areas	Yes
Meningiococcus	No	At entrance college/endemic areas	Yes
Japanese Encephalitis Virus (JEV)	No	Series 5 injections/7 years	Yes
Influenza	Yes (2)	Annually	No
Pneumococcus	No	5 years, only 2 lifetime	Yes
Typhoid	No	2 injection/5 capsules	Yes
Yellow Fever	No	5 years	Yes

Medications:  Your trip recommentations may have several medications included.  These are usually preventative care to keep you from getting an illness while traveling.  They are specific to the region and length of your trip.  Such illnesses as Dengue Fever, Malaria, Schistosomiasis, Chagas Disease, Typhoid Fever, Leshmaniasis, etc. are on the list of concerns for the traveler.  The most common illness is Turista, or traveler's diarrhea.  It can simply ruin a trip and prolong your return to normal life afterwards!  There are many things that can be done for traveler's diarrhea.  We have an instructional brochure and medications for travlers going to high risk areas.  This really simplifies the problem, should it occur!

Other medications include topicals for prevention, recommendations for avoidance and self treatment advice for those who qualify.