Our Opioid Response

At CVS Health, our expansive reach, expertise and access to local communities position us to help address prescription opioid misuse and abuse with an enterprise-wide approach.

CVS Health has made a commitment to help address the abuse and misuse of prescription opioids by designing programs and collaborating with community leaders, policymakers, law enforcement, health care professionals and others to increase community-based educational programs related to opioid misuse and abuse, create safe prescription drug disposal sites, expand access to life-saving antidotes and advocate for targeted and effective policies, locally and nationally.

Our comprehensive enterprise approach includes:

Safe medication disposal units installed in more than 1,700 CVS Pharmacy locations nationwide
Donated nearly 1,000 safe medication disposal units to local police departments across the country
Pharmacist counseling for patients filling their first opioid prescription
Enhanced utilization management for our CVS Caremark clients
Community investments to support addiction recovery and prevention
Opioid abuse prevention education for teens and parents
Access to and advocacy for opioid-overdose reversal medication
Ongoing advocacy to promote prescription drug monitoring programs, prescription limitations, and e-prescribing
Board-level oversight of our opioid-related safety, programs and initiatives

Aetna has also employed a comprehensive strategy to fight opioid abuse, with the goal by 2020 of drastically reducing overprescribing and misuse.

Aetna’s strategic programs focus on prevention, intervention and support for treatment, including ‘super-prescriber’ interventions to physicians, surgeons and dentists with outlying opioid prescribing habits; Aetna Pharmacy’s Controlled Substance Use programs that identify and intervene with at-risk members; and the Guardian Angel pilot program to identify and outreach to members who recently experienced an opioid-related overdose.

Our ongoing opioid abuse prevention efforts and enterprise initiatives are supported by all parts of the company — including our CVS Pharmacy retail presence in nearly 10,000 communities across the country, CVS Caremark, our PBM that manages medications for more than 100 million plan members — and reach patients, providers, payors, advocacy organizations, elected leaders and community health advocates.

Working in collaboration with these health care stakeholders, CVS Health is committed to helping to address opioid misuse and abuse.

Prevention & Patient Engagement

From in-store programs like our medication disposal units and first-fill counseling to guidelines for opioid utilization management for our prescription benefits members, we’ve taken a proactive approach to opioid abuse prevention.

Learn more about our prevention and patient engagement efforts.
Community Initiatives

We recognize the importance of tackling opioid misuse and abuse at the local level, with local solutions. To do that, we’ve launched education programs for teens and parents and committed funding to organizations across the country to support prevention, treatment and recovery efforts.

Learn more about our opioid-focused community initiatives.
Public Policy

As a leading stakeholder in health care, we work with advocacy organizations and elected leaders to recommend new and enhanced policies that will help prevent opioid misuse and abuse.

Learn more about our public policy work.
Governance

Our Board has made our commitment to help address prescription opioid abuse an important priority of CVS Health. Within the Board, the Audit Committee, Medical Affairs Committee, the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee and the Management Planning and Development Committee each play a significant role in the Board’s oversight efforts.

Learn more about our corporate governance.
The Board’s Role in Our Opioid Action Plan

Our Board is actively engaged in our efforts to address prescription opioid abuse through its oversight and review of the programs we are implementing to respond to prescription opioid abuse and working with our executive team as it develops new strategies to address it.

Read more about the role of our board in our efforts.

Our Progress

We All Have a Role to Play in Safe Medication Disposal

Our Vice President for Professional Services writes about the work being done at CVS Health to help combat opioid misuse every day through prevention and education.

A cell phone with Google maps on the screen.

Partnering with Google Maps to Promote Safe Medication Disposal

The collaboration builds on our opioid abuse prevention efforts and will help consumers find locations in their communities to drop off unwanted prescription drugs.

Time delay safe signage posted in select CVS Pharmacy locations

Preventing Pharmacy Diversion with Time Delay Safes

As part of our fight against prescription drug abuse, we’ve added safes with time-delay functionality in select CVS Pharmacy locations.

CVS Health Expands In-Store Medication Disposal Program in Virginia

Disposal units can now be found in select CVS Pharmacy locations around the state, making it easier for the public to safely dispose of opioids and other medications before they’re misused.

CVS Health colleagues and Arizona state officials pose with a safe drug disposal unit

Medication Disposal Units Installed in CVS Pharmacy Locations in Arizona

The expansion of the program is part of our ongoing efforts to combat the opioid epidemic nationwide by preventing the misuse and abuse of unused or unwanted medications.

CVS Health Announces Expanded Opioid Abuse Prevention Efforts

At a recent White House event, we announced new commitments to prevent prescription drug abuse and help the millions of Americans who struggle with addiction daily.