Dallas County health officials spent Thursday figuring out how to get people with insurance more 2009 H1N1 flu vaccine, even as they continued to vaccinate the uninsured.

Almost 3,100 people received vaccine during the second day of the county's first large-scale walk-in vaccination clinic, bringing the two-day total to about 6,700. The clinic is scheduled to reopen this morning, and the county will offer the remainder of more than 10,000 doses it started the week with.

But plans announced by Texas officials on Wednesday may send thousands of doses a week to the county health department. And large clinics like the one this week that basically closed the department to anything but swine flu vaccinations just aren't practical very often, county health department director Zachary Thompson said.

"I'm glad to get more doses," he said. "Any health department would be glad to get more doses. But we need to find other ways to get the vaccine out to the people who need it."

The state's original plan for distributing the vaccine assumed that individual doctors would give the vaccine to their patients. Local health departments would focus on the uninsured. Others would be able to get their vaccine from large public vaccinators, such as pharmacies.

But many doctors chose not to offer the vaccine. And the supply has been so small that it has not been available at pharmacies. So while more than 200,000 doses have been shipped to Dallas County doctors, many people have not been able to find any.

Health departments across the state had asked for more doses on a more predictable schedule, so one-fifth of all vaccine sent to Texas will now be set aside for the local departments. Dallas County plans to use some of the new supply in its clinics for its normal clients. But it's also talking to pharmacy chains, Thompson said.

The county has talked to Wal-Mart, which contracts with Mollen Immunization Clinics to offer seasonal flu shots in many of its stores. Last week, Mollen partnered with the local health department in Maricopa County, Ariz., to run H1N1 clinics, mostly in Wal-Marts.

With 36 hours' notice, the company set up enough clinics to vaccinate about 14,000 people in a day, Mollen CEO John Roehm said. The clinics offered the vaccine only to members of the designated high-risk groups.

One issue that needs to be addressed in Dallas County is how to handle the fees involved. The federal government is giving the vaccine away for free to whoever uses it. The county gives its shots for free. Private providers are allowed to charge up to about $20.

Roehm said that Medicaid and most insurance companies are covering the vaccine. Those not covered would be charged $15, he said.

Talks with Mollen are preliminary, Thompson said. Other pharmacies or local health agencies could also be part of the plan, he said.

"We are getting bombarded about the insured people not being able to get the vaccine," he said. "No part of the population should be left out."