COVID-19 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

To ensure our nation's underserved communities and those disproportionately affected by COVID-19 are equitably vaccinated against COVID-19, HRSA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launched the Health Center COVID-19 Vaccine Program on February 9, 2021, to directly allocate a limited supply of COVID-19 vaccine to select HRSA health centers.

(Added: 2/19/2021)

In the first phase of the program, beginning in February 2021, 250 HRSA-funded health centers were invited to participate. The health centers invited for participation in the initial phase served populations disproportionately affected by COVID-19, including a significant number of people experiencing homelessness, migrant/seasonal agricultural workers, residents of public housing, and those with limited English proficiency, and included at least one health center in each state or territory.

In the second phase, beginning in March 2021, HRSA and CDC invited an additional 700 health centers to participate, increasing the total number of invited health center participants to 950. In selecting these health centers, HRSA again focused on reaching communities disproportionately hit by the pandemic, including those that served high proportions of low-income and minority patients, provided services to rural/frontier populations, operated Tribal/Urban Indian Health Programs, and/or utilized mobile vans to deliver services.

In the third phase, beginning in April 2021, HRSA invited all remaining HRSA-funded health centers and Health Center Program look-alikes with the necessary capabilities to access vaccines through the program.

In order to participate in the Health Center COVID-19 Vaccine Program, health centers must complete and submit the required Conditions of Participation agreement and Readiness Assessment and obtain a VTrckS PIN for each proposed site. If you are interested in participating in the Health Center COVID-19 Vaccine Program or want to renew your participation, please use the BPHC Contact Form to let us know.

(Updated: 6/21/2022)

Yes, HRSA has invited all HRSA-funded health centers and Health Center Program look-alikes to access vaccines through the program, if they wish to join and have the necessary capabilities.

(Updated: 4/7/2021)

To participate in the Health Center COVID-19 Vaccine Program, health centers must agree to a Conditions of Participation agreement, which includes:

1. Enrollment in and compliance with the CDC's U.S. COVID-19 Vaccination Program;
2. Accurate completion and approval of the HRSA Health Center COVID-19 Vaccine Program Readiness Assessment;
3. Data reporting (i.e., required vaccine supply and administration data reported to state/jurisdictions, as required in the CDC COVID-19 Vaccine Provider Agreement, as well as to the Health Center COVID-19 Survey and addendum); and
4. Other requirements (i.e., administer COVID-19 vaccines provided through the program to established health center patients and other individuals who present for such services (i.e., new patients) as capacity permits; ensure timely administration of all COVID-19 vaccine doses received through the program).

HRSA and the CDC will work with state and jurisdictional public health officials, Primary Care Associations, and health centers to assess and support health center readiness and capacity to participate in the program.

(Updated: 3/26/2021)

Yes, timely completion of the Health Center COVID-19 Survey and the addendum to the survey is mandatory for health centers participating in the Health Center COVID-19 Vaccine Program.

(Added: 2/19/2021)

HRSA has established policies and practices to maximize the impact and effectiveness of the Health Center Vaccine Program within the program’s weekly national vaccine allocation. In an effort to ensure equitable access to vaccines for all program participants, HRSA has instituted vaccine ordering caps at the site and health center level. This policy ensures that enrolled health centers will continue to have access to vaccine each week.

Participating health centers are encouraged to order the type and amount of vaccine that they are able to store and administer to meet the needs of the populations served, and to ensure that they can administer their full weekly vaccine order within 7 days. Each week, HRSA reviews health centers’ vaccine order requests, along with other allocation, inventory, and administration data, to develop final orders within the program’s total vaccine allocation.

The Health Center COVID-19 Vaccine Program is designed as a separate, direct allocation for health centers. The program is intended to supplement — not supplant — existing vaccine distributions that health centers are receiving from states.

(Updated: 5/3/2021)

Yes, a health center can receive shipment at one or more locations and then transfer or divide doses to any of their sites that meet the following three requirements:

1. The site is within the health center’s scope of project and has the appropriate capacity to administer vaccine;
2. The site has an established CDC COVID-19 Vaccination Program Provider Agreement in place; and
3. The site has been onboarded in HPOP.

Pre-approval is not required from HRSA to transfer vaccines to another health center site. However, the transfer should be documented in HPOP using the transfer tab. Health centers must report transferred inventory at the site to which the vaccine was transferred.

(Added: 4/27/2021)

Vaccines provided through the Health Center COVID-19 Vaccine Program are to be administered to established health center patients and other individuals (i.e., new patients) who present for such services. Vaccines from the Health Center COVID-19 Vaccine Program must be used for vaccination activities conducted on behalf of the health center. Some considerations for whether vaccination activities would be on behalf of the health center include but are not limited to:

• The health center’s governing board retains control and authority over the activities/provision of any services, regardless of whether the activities take place at a health center site or at another location within the community;
• The health center establishes and/or maintains a patient/vaccination record for all individuals served; and
• The health center bills for the vaccine administrative fee, as applicable.

For more information on assessing whether services or activities are performed on behalf of the health center, review the Considerations for Health Center Scope of Project and the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency.

In addition, while HRSA encourages health centers to order only the quantity of vaccine doses they can reasonably administer themselves, HRSA recognizes that in some cases it may be appropriate for a health center to transfer existing vaccine doses to another health center or vaccine provider, including those not participating in the Health Center COVID-19 Vaccine Program.

If necessary to avoid wastage and to increase community-wide vaccination efforts, health centers that participate in the Health Center COVID-19 Vaccine Program may transfer vaccine doses to state, local, tribal, or territorial public health partners, or other health care providers, in accordance with the following requirements:

1. Transfers can only be made to other COVID-19 vaccine providers within the health center’s jurisdiction.
2. Both parties involved must update their inventory upon transfer. For Health Center COVID-19 Vaccine Program participants, this means the health center will need to zero out the transferred doses in HPOP and the recipient organization will need to increase their inventory in their applicable reporting system (Vaccines.gov/VaccineFinder).
3. The provider receiving the transfer assumes responsibility for meeting all CDC provider agreement requirements, including reporting administration of transferred vaccine doses in the appropriate jurisdictional IIS. The health center will not report on the administration of any transferred doses in the Health Center COVID-19 Survey or in any other reporting systems.

Note that VTrckS will not be updated to change the ordering or delivery information. Further guidance regarding the vaccine transfer process is available in the Health Center Program Community.

Questions regarding restrictions on redistributing vaccine doses allocated to a health center from the state or other source outside of the Health Center COVID-19 Vaccine Program should be directed to the CDC and the state.

(Updated: 1/3/2023)

The intent of the Health Center COVID-19 Vaccine Program is to ensure underserved communities and those disproportionately affected by COVID-19 are equitably vaccinated against COVID-19.

Health centers are to ensure timely administration of all COVID-19 vaccine doses provided through the program to established health center patients and other individuals who present for such services (i.e., new patients) and meet criteria for vaccination, regardless of an individual’s ability to pay.

If a health center does not have sufficient capacity to vaccinate individuals beyond its established patient population (e.g., due to limited Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), supplies, or staff capacity), the health center should refer patients to other appropriate providers.

(Added: 3/10/2021)

The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has recommended that people whose immune systems are moderately to severely compromised receive an additional dose of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine at least four weeks after completion of their initial two-dose mRNA series. See the statement from CDC.

Health centers participating in the Health Center COVID-19 Vaccine Program should continue to order the type and amount of vaccine that they are able to store and administer to meet the needs of the populations served, and to ensure that they can administer their full weekly vaccine order within 7 days. Additional doses for immunocompromised individuals—like all vaccine doses—must be administered in accordance with the latest CDC guidance and FDA Emergency Use Authorization for the vaccine.

The main part of the Health Center COVID-19 Survey includes a question to understand how many patients (by race and ethnicity) have received an additional dose, and the addendum includes questions to understand how many staff and how many patients (by race, ethnicity, and special population) have received an additional dose allocated through the Health Center COVID-19 Vaccine Program.

(Updated: 1/17/2023)

Patients can contact their local health center to find out about availability of COVID-19 vaccine appointments. To find your local health center, please use HRSA's Find a Health Center tool.

(Added: 2/19/2021)