Category Archives: Home-Based Dialysis

Early evidence on disparities in vaccine acceptance

Posted on by • Posted in Asymptomatic Transmission, Coronavirus, Coronavirus Mutation, Crisis, Crisis Management, Evidence-based Leadership, Evidence-Based Plan, Evidence-Based Policy, Health System, Healthcare Providers, Home Care, Home Health, Home-Based Dialysis, Hospital, Hospital Industry, Infection Control, Infection Control Plan, Infectious Virus, Nurses, Pandemic, Physician, Population Health, Public Health, Public Opinion, Public Perception, Public Safety, Public Trust, Vaccine, Vaccine Distribution, Vaccine Hesitancy Rate, Vulnerable Populations • Leave a comment

https://mailchi.mp/128c649c0cb4/the-weekly-gist-january-22-2021?e=d1e747d2d8

Distributing a COVID-19 Vaccine Across the U.S. – A Look at Key Issues – Issue Brief – 9563 | KFF

Although only 17 states are currently reporting data on the racial and ethnic breakdown of vaccine recipients, the early data indicate that there are significant disparities in who is getting vaccinated, with the share of Black and Latino people among vaccinees lower than their share of the total population in those states.

Alarmingly, in our recent conversations with health system executives, those same disparities seem to be present among healthcare workers employed by hospitals and health systems. Anecdotally, across a half-dozen health systems we’ve spoken with in the past week, most report that they’ve had about 70 percent of their workers agree to get the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

However, that number looks significantly different when broken down by race and ethnicity: on average, the uptake rate among White, Asian, and Pacific Islander workers has been closer to 90-95 percent, while among Black and Latino workers, it’s been closer to 30-40 percent. Bear in mind these are employees of health systems—in many cases they’re frontline caregivers—and given their work environments you might expect them to be less hesitant to get the vaccine.

That 30-40 percent uptake rate is very worrisome, in two ways: caregivers outside of hospital settings, especially home care and nursing home workers, likely include a larger number of workers hesitant to get vaccinated. And in the general population, among whom health literacy is presumably much lower than among healthcare workers, it’s precisely those populations who are at highest risk of COVID infection, hospitalization, and death. (A further complication: health systems made it easy for their employees to get the shot. With vaccines for the general population still scarce, at-risk populations will inevitably have the most difficult time getting signed up, even if they want the vaccine.)

If health systems are the canary in the coal mine for vaccine hesitancy rates, we’re in for a tough challenge in getting the most vulnerable populations vaccinated in the months to come.

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.