Home » Vaccine Fact Check » Were Doctors Bribed to Give COVID Vaccines?

Were Doctors Bribed to Give COVID Vaccines?

Why do some people think that some doctors were bribed to give COVID vaccines?

The Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield document was not leaked and does not show that doctors were bribed to give COVID vaccines.
The Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield document was not leaked and does not show that doctors were bribed to give COVID vaccines.

The usual suspects…

Were Doctors Bribed to Give COVID Vaccines?

In this case, the idea that doctors were bribed to give COVID vaccines is back, being laundered in the anti-vaccine echo-chamber because Peter McCullough thinks it is some kind of bombshell he has discovered.

The Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield document was not leaked and does not show that doctors were bribed to give COVID vaccines.
Another Peter McCullough bombshell that falls flat…

A “bombshell” that a US Representative tweeted about over a year ago…

The Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield document was not leaked and does not show that doctors were bribed to give COVID vaccines.
Maybe someone should investigate Thomas Massie, since he obviously doesn’t understand the difference between a bribe and an incentive.

A “bombshell” report from a “leaked” document that has been on the BCBS website for nearly three years!

The Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield document was not leaked. It was posted online in 2021.
The “leaked” Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield document has been online since October 2021…

Can you guess what else about Peter McCullough‘s bombshell isn’t true?

“Do you know what the bonus was to the doctor? About a quarter million dollars!”

Peter McCullough

While doctors were provided with a bonus payment as an incentive to get more of their patients vaccinated and protected, there is no way they qualified for huge bonuses as he suggests.

Why not?

The patients of a typical doctor aren’t all going to have Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Medicaid insurance! In Kentucky, there are thousands of health care providers that take care of nearly 1.3 million patients enrolled in the state’s Medicaid managed care organization plans, with Anthem being the smallest of five Medicaid MCO plans.

The Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield document was not leaked and does not show that doctors were bribed to give COVID vaccines.
To get the $250 bonus, 75% of your Anthem patients had to be vaccinated and you had to get more of your Anthem patients vaccinated for the first time between September and the end of the year.

So even if all of the doctor’s patients were in a Medicaid MCO, it is unlikely that all of them would have Anthem.

Vaccination rates among Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield members were very low in Kentucky.
Unfortunately, only about 27% of those eligible on Medicaid in Kentucky had received at least one dose of the COVID vaccine in 2021, much lower than Kentuckians overall.

And even if they did, they almost certainly did not have high enough vaccination rates to qualify for the highest incentives.

Anthem had “a vaccination rate of about 25%” in 2021, when their incentive program ran!

The Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield document was not leaked and does not show that doctors were bribed to give COVID vaccines.
It’s too bad this incentive program didn’t work any better. What happened just after it ended? The big Omicron surge and many, many deaths, especially in those who were still unvaccinated. Why didn’t Thomas Massie want his constituents vaccinated and protected?

So while it doesn’t seem like Anthem’s incentive program worked too well to boost COVID vaccination rates among its members, it did help to demonstrate how folks like Peter McCullough create and push propaganda against vaccines!

“Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Medicaid (Anthem) recognizes the unique challenges providers experience while caring for our members, and we appreciate the quality of care consistently offered by so many of our providers. In recognition of these efforts, Anthem offers the Smoking Cessation Provider Incentive Program (SCPIP). Anthem has designed SCPIP to encourage providers to provide smoking cessation counseling to members who use tobacco, including referring them to Kentucky’s Tobacco Quitline.”

2023 Smoking Cessation Provider Incentive Program

Fortunately, Anthem providers have another way to make some extra money! They can help their patients quit smoking.

More on Vaccine Incentive Programs

Last Updated on May 13, 2024