Effect of physician-specific mailouts aimed at increasing influenza immunization rates

With the Year 2000 goal being 60%, influenza immunization rates for the Medicare elderly in Louisiana remain far below the expected target rate. It is well recognized that physicians are an important group of health care providers who can contribute towards increasing influenza immunization rates for community dwelling elders. As a health care quality improvement effort, in order to increase the 1997 influenza immunization rates for Louisiana, we implemented a physician specific mailout intervention. Medicare Part B claims and influenza immunization datasets were used to compute missed opportunity rates and immunization rates. Compared to rates in 1996, the influenza immunization rate in both groups significantly increased irrespective of the intervention. However, the increase in the intervention group was more than that in the control group, indicating that mailout of indicator rate data to physicians impacts upon practice patterns.