Category Archives: CVS Health

49 hospitals, health systems partnering with CVS

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https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/innovation/49-hospitals-health-systems-partnering-with-cvs.html?origin=BHRE&utm_source=BHRE&utm_medium=email&utm_content=newsletter&oly_enc_id=2893H2397267F7G

As the nation’s leading provider of retail healthcare, CVS Health partners with hospitals and health systems in many local markets.

The health systems assist providers at CVS MinuteClinic locations and accept referrals from patients needing a higher level of care. Here are CVS’ clinical affiliates, according to its website:

Arizona

Dignity Health (San Francisco)

Northwest Healthcare (Tucson)

Tucson Medical Center

California

John Muir Health (Walnut Creek)

Sharp HealthCare (San Diego)

Sutter Health (Sacramento)

UCLA Health (Los Angeles)

Connecticut

Hartford HealthCare

District of Columbia

MedStar Health (Columbia, Md.)

Florida

Baptist Health Care (Pensacola)

Cleveland Clinic Florida (Weston)

Florida Hospital Medical Group (Orlando)

Millennium Physician Group (Fort Myers)

St. Vincent’s HealthCare (Jacksonville)

Georgia

Emory Healthcare (Atlanta)

Memorial Health (Savannah)

Illinois

Franciscan Health (Mishawaka, Ind.)

Rush University Medical Center (Chicago)

Indiana

Franciscan Health (Mishawaka)

Kansas

Lawrence Memorial Hospital

Shawnee Mission Health (Merriam)

Louisiana

The Baton Rouge Clinic

LSU Healthcare Network (New Orleans)

Maryland

MedStar Health (Columbia)

University of Maryland Medical System (Baltimore)

Massachusetts

Baystate Health (Springfield)

Lahey Health (Burlington)

UMass Memorial Health (Worcester)

Michigan

Franciscan Health (Mishawaka, Ind.)

Henry Ford Health (Detroit)

Minnesota

Allina Health (Minneapolis)

Nevada

Dignity Health-St. Rose Dominican (Henderson)

New Hampshire

Dartmouth Health (Lebanon)

New York

CareMount Medical (Mount Kisco)

Mount Sinai Health System (New York City)

Northwell Health (New Hyde Park)

New Jersey

RWJBarnabas Health (West Orange)

Virtua Health (Marlton)

Ohio

Cleveland Clinic

Premier Health (Dayton)

TriHealth (Cincinnati)

Oklahoma

OU Physicians (Tulsa)

Pennsylvania

Lehigh Valley Health Network (Allentown)

St. Luke’s University Health Network (Bethlehem)

Rhode Island

Lifespan (Providence)

South Carolina

Prisma Health (Greenville)

Tennessee

Parkridge Health System (Chattanooga)

TriStar Health (Brentwood)

Texas

Texas Health Resources (Arlington)

University of Texas Medical Branch (Galveston)

UT Health Physicians (San Antonio)

Virginia

Inova Health System (Falls Church)

Oak Street Health unveils expansion plans to open centers in 4 new states

Posted on by • Posted in CVS Health, Medicare Advantage, Primary Care, Primary Care Delivery Model, Primary Care Strategy, Vertical Consolidation, Vertical Integration • Leave a comment

https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/providers/oak-street-health-unveils-expansion-plans-4-new-states

Less than a month after CVS Health acquired Oak Street Health, the primary care provider plans to expand into four more states.

The company plans to open value-based primary care centers in Little Rock, Arkansas; Des Moines and Davenport, Iowa; Kansas City, Kansas and Richmond, Virginia, beginning this summer.

Oak Street Health will operate centers in 25 states by the end of the year.

The provider also aims to open new centers in existing markets this year with additional centers planned for Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

CVS finalized its $10.6 billion acquisition of the Medicare-focused primary care company in early May, picking up, at the time, about 169 medical centers in 21 states. 

The acquisition significantly broadens CVS Health’s primary care footprint and the retail pharmacy giant said the deal will improve health outcomes and reduce costs for patients, particularly for those in underserved communities.

CVS folded the company into its newly created healthcare delivery arm. The company also recently finalized its $8 billion acquisition of home health and technology company Signify Health.

The two deals will help advance the health giant’s push into value-based care and mark its latest moves to get further into healthcare services. 

Oak Street specializes in treating Medicare Advantage patients and its network of clinics is expected to grow to over 300 centers by 2026.

The provider says it developed an integrated care model that incorporates behavioral healthcare and social determinants support and patients can access care in-center, in-home and through telehealth appointments.

Oak Street Health says it has reduced patient hospital admissions by approximately 51% compared to Medicare benchmarks, and driven a 42% reduction in 30-day readmission rates and a 51% reduction in emergency department visits. 

“One of the most critical ways we advance our mission to rebuild healthcare as it should be is by bringing our high-quality primary care and unmatched patient experience to more older adults across the country,” said Mike Pykosz, Oak Street Health’s CEO. “We look forward to meeting and caring for new deserving patients in Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas and Virginia, as well as the opportunity to create meaningful jobs for those passionate about improving health outcomes for patients and bridging health equity gaps in their communities.”

The CVS-Oak Street Health deal marks the latest example of vertical integration in healthcare. In addition to operating thousands of pharmacies and MinuteClinics, CVS also is the parent company of major health insurer Aetna and pharmacy benefit manager CVS Caremark.

CVS Health exits clinical trial business

Posted on by • Posted in Clinical Trial Recruitment, Clinical Trials, CVS Health, For-Profit, Private Equity, Profit Margin, Profit Model, Profit Motive • Leave a comment

https://mailchi.mp/73102bc1514d/the-weekly-gist-may-19-2023?e=d1e747d2d8

On Wednesday, CVS revealed plans to phase out its clinical trials unit by December 2024. The company launched the business line in 2021, building off its successful participation engaging CVS patrons in COVID vaccine and treatment studies.

With 40 percent of Americans living near a CVS pharmacy, the company had hoped to facilitate the decentralization of the clinical trials business, recruiting patients who lived in markets without academic medical centers, with goals to engage 10M patients across 150 research sites. However, to date it has only enrolled 33K participants, just over 10 percent of its COVID vaccine volunteer patient cohort. 

The Gist: While CVS appears to be focusing on its faster-growing Medicare Advantage and provider businesses, following its expensive acquisitions of Oak Street Health and Signify Health, the promise for decentralized clinical research remains. 

Traditional clinical trials often suffer from low participation; recruiting from more diverse populations would improve enrollment and could enhance the quality of research conducted. 

Decentralization is also a win for patients, providing access to clinical trials for lower-income patients who may have difficulty regularly traveling to academic centers. Other players, ranging from startups to retail giants like Walmart and Walgreens, remain active in this space. While we hope they may bring new models to market, they will likely evaluate their programs against similar business decisions and profit objectives. 

CVS invests $100M in Carbon Health

Posted on by • Posted in CVS Health, Primary Care, Primary Care Delivery Model, Primary Care Strategy, Urgent Care, Virtual Care Strategy, Virtual Healthcare, Virtual Office, Virtual Visit • Leave a comment

https://mailchi.mp/59374d8d7306/the-weekly-gist-january-13-2023?e=d1e747d2d8

On Monday, San Francisco-based Carbon Health—a virtual-first primary and urgent care company with 125 clinics across 13 states—announced a partnership with CVS Health, which includes a $100M investment, as well as plans to pilot its operating model in select CVS stores. The announcement came just days after Carbon reported its second round of layoffs in the past year, as it scales back on less profitable business segments to focus on expanding its primary care model. 

The Gist: It’s been over a year since CVS CEO Karen Lynch said the company was moving with “speed and urgency” to construct a physician-staffed primary care model. Last fall it purchased in-home health evaluation company Signify Health for $8B, after rumors that it had been close to acquiring One Medical.

Between its convenient retail footprint, insurance arm, and Signify’s risk-assessment tools, a nationwide primary care physician network is the last puzzle piece CVS needs to field a comprehensive and formidable primary care strategy.

While it’s currently rumored to be evaluating a $10B acquisition of Oak Street Health, this partnership with Carbon Health is a better bet to deliver value quickly, as CVS should be able to more easily integrate and leverage Carbon’s retail health expertise across its growing care delivery platform.

Pharmacy chains rapidly expand into primary care

Posted on by • Posted in CVS Health, Medicare Advantage, Pharmaceutical Industry, Primary Care, Primary Care Delivery Model, Primary Care Strategy, Retail Clinic, Retail Healthcare, Retail Pharmacy, Walgreens, Walmart • Leave a comment

https://mailchi.mp/cfd0577540a3/the-weekly-gist-november-11-2022?e=d1e747d2d8

Retailers and insurers are building out their primary care strategies in a bid to become the new front door for patients seeking healthcare services, especially seniors on highly profitable Medicare Advantage (MA) plans. In the graphic above, we examine the capabilities of three of the largest pharmacy chains—CVS Health, Walgreens, and Walmart—to deliver full-service primary care across in-person and virtual settings.

CVS pioneered the pivot to care provision in 2006 with its acquisition of MinuteClinic, which now has over 1,000 locations. The company has further expanded its concept of pairing retail and pharmacy services with primary care by opening over 100 HealthHUBs, which provide an expanded slate of care services. However, CVS lags competitors in the rollout of full-service primary care practices, with its proposed physician-led Super Clinics still stuck in the planning stages.

Walgreens, with its majority stake in VillageMD (on track for 200 co-branded practices by the end of the year) and the recent acquisition of Summit Health (which operates another 370 primary and urgent care clinics) has assembled the most impressive primary care footprint of the three companies. 

Walmart, the largest by number of stores but also the newest to healthcare, has opened more than 25 Walmart Health Centers, a step up from earlier experimentation with in-store care clinics, offering more services and partnering with Epic Systems to integrate electronic health records. 

CVS’s key advantage over its competitors comes from its payer business, having acquired Aetna in 2018, now the fourth-largest MA payer by membership. Walgreens and Walmart have both aligned themselves with UnitedHealth Group (UHG) to participate in MA, with Walmart having struck a ten-year partnership to steer UHG MA beneficiaries to Walmart Health Centers in Florida and Georgia. 

While aligning with UHG expands the reach of these retail giants into MA risk, UHG, whose OptumHealth division is by far the largest employer of physicians nationwide, remains the healthcare juggernaut most poised to unseat incumbent providers as the home for consumers’ healthcare needs.

CVS announces aggressive expansion plans

Posted on by • Posted in Business Model, Consumer Engagement, Consumer Loyalty, CVS Health, Expansion Strategy, Health Insurance Industry, Home Care, Home-Based Dialysis, Lower Acuity Care Services, Mission, Virtual Healthcare, Vision, Wellness • Leave a comment

https://cvshealth.com/newsroom/press-releases/cvs-health-outlines-strategy-accelerate-growth

Image result for cvs health

In a presentation to investors this week, retail pharmacy giant CVS Health announced plans to expand its “HealthHUB” store concept, first launched at three store locations in Houston, to 1,500 stores in the next three years.

The new store concept, built to take advantage of CVS’s 2018 acquisition of health insurer Aetna, is centered around providing more extensive care management and wellness services than traditionally available at the chain’s Minute Clinics. In addition to Houston, the company is targeting Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Tampa, all in states where Aetna’s existing insurance footprint and the new care offerings can be combined to create new benefit designs and consumer engagement approaches.

In a wide-ranging discussion of the company’s future strategies, CVS executives also outlined plans for delivering home-based dialysis, expanded in-store primary care services, and further expansion of virtual care. In sum, CVS is banking on its ability to lower care costs for health plan enrollees and increase use of its clinic services to grow incremental revenue by $850M in the next three years, and $2.5B longer term.

We continue to view CVS as an entirely new kind of healthcare delivery company, bringing together convenient, lower-acuity care services and a risk model that will allow it to prosper by reducing the cost of care and building consumer loyalty. The speed of CVS’s rollout of this new value proposition should be a wake-up call to traditional healthcare providers everywhere.