Travel Vaccines

Do I really have to pay $190 to watch a "professional" do a Google search?

Tina and I are still working through the process. Yesterday's big project was trying to figure out exactly what vaccines we need to travel to China. Hepatitis A and B are big concerns among the families who post on a couple websites we read.

Tina asked our doctor about Hep B vaccine. He said he didn't provide it, but we could get them from the public health department. Tina called the public health department. They said they didn't provide travel vaccines and suggested we go to a walk-in clinic.

We went to the walk-in clinic by the hospital. They explained that we would have to pay $95 each for a travel consultation with a doctor. Then we would get the vaccines recommended based on this consultation. The vaccines would cost up to $100 each. Then she said she couldn't bill our insurance provider. She called another walk-in clinic and found out they could bill our provider for us. So we drove over to the other clinic.

On the way to the other clinic I began getting skeptical regarding the value of the "consultation". Shouldn't the recommended and required vaccinations for traveling to China be easily accessible public information? I said to Tina, "Can't we just look up the info on the CDC (Center for Disease Control) website?"

So we get to the other clinic, and as we are checking in we commented on the expense. The receptionist said, "Yes, it can be quite expensive depending what the doctor finds on the CDC website during the consultation."

"The CDC website?" I blurted out, "I know the URL for the CDC website!" And I called it off. I couldn't pay $190 to have a doctor look up a website for me.

I would tell you what shots are required or recommended for traveling to China, but I'll need your credit card first. If you really want to know, you can click

HERE

to see the CDC's webpage with information on it.