Immunizations for Early Teens
2022-23 Edition
Why is it important for teens to be vaccinated?
Vaccines, also called shots or immunizations, are one of the safest and most effective ways to protect your young teen from getting or spreading potentially serious diseases. Despite all of the benefits of vaccines, not all young teens receive the vaccines they need. Some vaccines are required for entry into middle schools or junior high schools in California.
How should doctors help prevent illness during early teenage years?
Highly rated health plans and their doctors send reminders when your adolescent needs a vaccination. This makes it easier for you to be sure that your adolescent child, by age 13, has all of the recommended vaccinations.
What do the scores mean?
The scores show how well each health plan did at making sure adolescents in the health plan received (1) a meningococcal vaccine, (2) a vaccine for tetanus, diphtheria (an upper respiratory infection), and pertussis (whooping cough), (3) the complete vaccine series for human papillomavirus (HPV) by age 13. by age 13. The higher score means more adolescent children got the right care at the right time.
The scores are based on information from at least 30 health plan member administrative records in 2021. Some plans also use patient medical records which are often more complete and result in higher scores. Plans that decide not to use medical records are likely to have lower scores.
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The source for data contained in this publication is Quality Compass®2022 and is used with the permission of the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). Quality Compass® 2022 includes certain Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS®) data. Any data display, analysis, interpretation, or conclusion based on these data is solely that of the authors, and NCQA specifically disclaims responsibility for any such display, analysis, interpretation, or conclusion. Quality Compass is a registered trademark of NCQA. CAHPS® is a registered trademark of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
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