Background: Immunization registries are tools to improve and sustain immunz
ation coverage rates for our nation's preschool children. Developing a mean
s of supporting registries over the long term requires information on costs
to operate registries.
Methods: To determine the annual cost per child to operate immunization reg
istries for the 16 All Kids Count (AKC) II projects, some of the most devel
oped registry projects in the United States, we projected a national figure
for operating registries and compared the figure with a variety of potenti
al cost offsets.
Results: When the registries are fully operational, the average cost per ch
ild for the 16 AKC II projects will be $3.91 (range, $1.60 to $6.23; interq
uartile range, $2.91 to $4.81) per year.
Conclusions: Based on the AKC study, maintaining a nationwide network of re
gistries for children aged 0 to 5 will require an estimated $78.2 million.
Cost offsets include not having to manually retrieve records for school ent
ry, child care, change in provider, and Health plan Employer Data Informati
on Set reports; not having to carry out the National Immunization Survey; a
nd prevention of overimmunization. We estimate these offsets at $113.8 mill
ion annually.