Environmental health impact initiative

At CVS Health®, we understand that extreme weather affects human health — and we know that severe weather events, like heat waves, are becoming more common and can contribute to environmental conditions like poor air quality. That’s why we launched a new, innovative environmental health impact initiative, aimed at helping people most vulnerable to extreme weather.

What is the environmental health impact initiative at CVS Health?

Our nationwide Environmental Health Impact Initiative is the first of its kind to help people most vulnerable to extreme weather events.

The initiative pairs real-time and highly localized forecasting data on heat, humidity, air quality and other weather-related insights with a patient’s medical, pharmacy and demographic data.

We use heat, humidity, air quality and other weather-related data that allows us to map the current and future state of our atmosphere at a specific location and time, providing accurate, real-time and highly localized weather insights. Our risk model can predict a heat wave exceeding 88 degrees Fahrenheit and identify members living in areas with an unhealthy air quality index (AQI) up to several days in advance.

Using this information, our registered nurse care managers proactively contact our highest risk patients and members with personalized recommendations up to several days in advance of an extreme weather event.

What kind of recommendations do registered nurse care managers provide?

Our registered nurse care managers provide educational and/or action-based recommendations tailored to each patient’s profile. Recommendations range from checking in with vulnerable patients and members post-hospital care to provide general education about air quality, heat exhaustion and allergy mitigation strategies, to directing them to the company’s range of resources, like Oak Street Health® clinics available as cooling centers, health services provided at MinuteClinic® locations, medication management at CVS Pharmacy®, access to virtual or in-person mental health counseling through MinuteClinic in select states and more.

Recommendations may also include referring patients to allergy testing, if needed and directing patients to community resources that provide access to transportation, nutritious food and other social determinants of health to increase access to health care services and improve health and well-being.