Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP) — which serves about 1.6 million people in Southern California — gives parents a $200 gift card when their baby receives a flu shot and the rotavirus series of shots by age 1, according to its 2025 Medi-Cal Member Incentive FAQs sent to all of IEHP's general practitioners, family practitioners and pediatricians.

IEHP also gives a $50 gift card when a 12- or 13-year-old receives the first dose of the HPV vaccine, and an additional $150 gift card if the pre-teen completes the two- or three-dose series by age 13.

Karl Jablonowski, Ph.D., Children's Health Defense's (CHD) senior research scientist, said IEHP is undermining true informed consent.

"An incentivized parent choosing vaccination is not medical decision-making — it's economic decision-making," he said. "In the case of low-income Medicaid families, that incentive may look more like an undue influence."

The full scope of the IEHP's vaccination incentive program is unclear.

According to a 2024 FAQ memo sent to providers, IEHP gave families $25 gift cards when children completed various wellness checkups. The 2024 FAQ memo did not list specific vaccinations that needed to be completed at the wellness visits.

The 2025 FAQ memo didn't mention rewards for wellness checkups.

Jablonowski said there are valid reasons why parents choose not to vaccinate their children. "That reasoning shouldn't be conflated with monetary incentives."

Researchers from the University of Maryland published a peer-reviewed study in June that found the HPV vaccine increases the risk of autonomic dysfunction, including postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), and menstrual irregularities in young women.

A 2024 peer-reviewed study by Dr. Jacob Puliyel and CHD's Chief Scientific Officer Brian Hooker on the health risks linked to India's rotavirus vaccine showed that U.S. rotavirus vaccines may pose similar risks.

GlaxoSmithKline, now GSK, manufactures the two-dose rotavirus vaccine, Rotarix, used in the U.S.

Merck Sharp & Dohme, a subsidiary of Merck & Co., makes the country's three-dose rotavirus vaccine, RotaTeq.