Throughout 2018, CVS Health leaders participated in industry-leading events and public forums to address some of the most pressing issues in our health care system. From Washington to Los Angeles, our leaders shared their vision for transforming the consumer health experience by making health care more local, easier to navigate and more affordable.
Key themes included:
Bringing Care Closer to Home
Serving as the front door to health care in 10,000 communities nationwide, CVS Health has long been committed to connecting patients to care when and where they need it. In 2018, our leaders highlighted how our combination with Aetna will build on this commitment by integrating care delivery at a local level and making our touchpoints to care more accessible and convenient.
- Larry Merlo, President and CEO, at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C.: “With a presence in 10,000 communities across the country, our combined company will be able to offer many options to access care — whether in the community at retail pharmacies and clinics, in the home, or through digital tools.”
- Dr. Troy Brennan, EVP and Chief Medical Officer, at HLTH 2018: “CVS Health is looking to narrow the distance between patients in their everyday lives and the caregiving facility by leveraging digital data and making health care accessible in convenient community locations.”
- Larry Merlo at the Forbes Health Care Summit: “This new combination establishes a network of more than 45,000 health care providers that live in the communities of nearly 70 percent of the U.S. population”
Improving Care Coordination and Connectivity
Health care can be fragmented for many Americans, which can impose barriers for patients across various settings. In 2018, our leaders emphasized the need to improve connectivity and communication across the care continuum to help patients and their providers better manage conditions.
- Larry Merlo at Town Hall Los Angeles: “Today, nearly 70 percent of Americans across the country live within three miles of a CVS Pharmacy. You can walk right in and see a pharmacist to get information about your prescription or a nurse practitioner at one of our more than 1,100 MinuteClinics to get chronic condition monitoring or a lab test, with the results sent directly to your primary care doctor.”
- Tom Moriarty, EVP, Chief Policy and External Affairs Officer, and General Counsel, at a POLITICO Health Care Innovators event: “Health IT is key to getting past the fragmentation we see in health care. If you come into a MinuteClinic or are seen anywhere else in the CVS world, we can port that information back to your physician, or back to the health care system that serves as your primary care center.”
Addressing Rising Drug Costs
Nearly eight in ten Americans express concerns about prescription drug costs and the impact on their families’ budgets. At CVS Health, we recognize that one the most important things we can do is to help people take their medications, which improves overall health and lowers costs. Our leaders emphasized why integrating digital tools that enhance price transparency and expanding access to generics and biosimilars are key in our efforts to connect patients to the right medicine at the lowest possible cost.
- Larry Merlo at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Spotlight Health: “We’re in the process of embedding our patients’ plan designs into [their] EHR so when the physician goes and puts a prescription in, he or she will be able to see the patient’s out of pocket costs, and up to five alternative [prescription medications] and the costs associated with each.”
- Tom Moriarty at the POLITICO Pro Summit: “There are a number of solutions that we can implement today within the existing statutory and regulatory framework to reduce overall prescription drug costs in the system and for patients while also driving improved health outcomes through increased adherence.”
For more information about CVS Health’s efforts to improve access to quality care across the nation, visit our Quality & Access information center and the CVS Health Impact Dashboard. To stay informed about the latest updates and innovations from CVS Health, register for content alerts and our bi-weekly health care newsletter.