COVID-19 vaccine suppliers are required to successfully enroll in a federal vaccine distribution program which instructs the correct handling and administration of the vaccine. Federal law also requires them to report specific information for each dose they administer in Vaccine Management System (VAMS), a secure national database accessed by states to monitor vaccine administration. It is important to note that VAMS numbers, how they are registered and when they can be / are registered, affect the amount of vaccines that VAMS says hospitals have available. Also, many of the available doses are allocated to people in phase 1a with scheduled appointments in the near future.