State health officials yesterday staged their first provider webinar for the new Immunization Messaging Portal, an effort by the California Department of Public Health to automate the submission of immunization data.

The new web portal replaces the former manual process for registering, testing and submitting electronic immunization data. Medicare and Medi-Cal providers participating in an electronic health record incentive program are required to submit immunization data electronically to the immunization registry.

The electronic immunization system helps providers meet the meaningful use requirements of the federal EHR incentive program.

There are seven regional registries in the California Immunization Registry (CAIR) system. Ten of the state’s 58 counties don’t participate in it yet. Those counties are mostly rural, but also include the larger San Diego, Imperial, San Joaquin and Tuolumne counties. Providers in those 10 counties can contact local data exchanges, state health information technology officials said.

Providers don’t need to individually register, state officials said, as long as the facility where they practice registers for the program.

EHR incentive sites must register at the new web portal by the end of 2013, state officials said.

The immunization registries help providers track patient immunization records and reduce missed opportunities for immunization, state officials said.