· Maine Announces Pre-Registration & Appointment System Website: VaccinateME

· Details of Governor Mills’ announcement of an accelerated COVID-19 vaccination timeline for Maine.

· Maine’s COVID-19 Online Vaccination Dashboard

· Maine Bureau of Insurance Emergency Response Order Regarding Roster Billing 

Maine Announces Pre-Registration & Appointment System Website: VaccinateME 

If your patients are eligible or awaiting eligibility for vaccination in Maine, they may now pre-register to be notified when appointments are available at VaccinateME.Maine.gov.   

They will be prompted to fill out a form with basic personal information (name, date of birth, county of residence) and they will need an email address.

When a vaccination appointment becomes available, they will receive an email with a personal access code that allows them to look for available openings across a number of sites and schedule an appointment. 

Many vaccination sites, however, are still allowing patients to pre-register with them directly. For those patients without online access, or an email address, that need help getting information about pre-registering or scheduling an appointment, they can call the Maine COVID-19 Community Vaccination Line at 1-888-445-4111. 

Details of Governor Mills’ announcement of an accelerated COVID-19 vaccination timeline for Maine. ·         

Tuesday, March 23, 2021, Maine residents age 50 were eligible for vaccination. 

Beginning Monday, April 19, 2021, all Maine residents age 16 and older will eligible for vaccination. 

The accelerated timeline is a result of the state reporting availability of appointments and the anticipation of an increase in vaccine supply from the Federal government. Vaccination for residents aged 50 and older was previously scheduled to begin on April 1, 2021, and for all adults on May 1, 2021. 

Additional information on vaccination for people in Maine is available at Maine’s COVID-19 vaccine website. 

Maine’s COVID-19 Online Vaccination Dashboard 

Summary (as of Friday, March 26, 2020): 

640,060 doses administered 

395, 533 first doses 

244, 527 final doses

29.42% of Mainers have received their first dose 

18.19% of Mainers have received their final dose 

The Vaccination dashboard further breaks down data by gender, age, and race and ethnicity. 

Maine Bureau of Insurance Emergency Response Order Regarding Roster Billing 

The Maine Bureau of Insurance (BOI) recently issued an Emergency Response Order on the issue of roster billing for immunizations. 

Maine’s health systems, hospitals, and other partners have opened mass throughput COVID vaccination clinics. The BOI missive outlines the importance and “successful implementation of these centers depends not only on moving large numbers of patients through them quickly but also on processing payments as efficiently as possible.  Filing individual claims at these centers requires significant labor and time by health care providers and carriers.  Maine Emergency Management Services (EMS) and the Maine health carriers have worked extensively on the data elements and processes needed to implement roster billing.” 

Superintendent, Eric Cioppa’s memo ordered the following additional emergency measures, effective immediately and until further notice, for all carriers issuing health plans in Maine’s individual, small group, and large group insurance markets: 

U. Health carriers shall implement processes to accept roster billing for COVID-19 vaccine administration on forms established with Maine EMS in lieu of the forms required under 24-A M.R.S. § 2436(2-A). Administration fees may not include facility costs. 

2. Carriers may reject roster claims for COVID-19 vaccine administration on a line-by-line basis if they do not have the information required by the roster claim forms, and may require providers that do not submit conforming roster claims to resubmit them. 

3. If carriers that participate in COVID-19 vaccine centers use their best efforts to comply with the prompt payment requirements of 24-A M.R.S. § 2436, they shall not be subject to the interest penalty in section 2436(3) if undisputed payment is made within 90 days after a roster claim is submitted. 

The full memorandum to carriers can be read here. 

Sample Bill to Insurance CSV 

Sample Bill Insurance Roster