CVS Health Plans Next Steps to Expand Primary Care by End-of-Year

CVS Health Corporation remains focused on expanding their health services to 3 categories: primary care, provider enablement, and home health.¹

Executives from CVS Health acknowledged a push to establish these services and said they have multiple pathways in achieving these goals.¹

During the company’s Q2 webcast, Karen Lynch, president, CEO, and director of CVS Health Corp, said that CVS has specific criteria guiding the optimal launch path for these services on a large scale.¹

“We look to see if there's a strong management team, which we're looking to see if there's a very strong tech stack. Obviously, the ability to scale, given the size of the company that we are, and a pathway to profitability,” she said in the meeting.¹

She added that CVS is confident that the next steps for expanded health care services will happen by the end of 2022.¹

In 2020, Walgreens Boots Alliance announced a partnership with VillageMD that will open 500 to 750 full-service physician offices in Walgreens stores within the next 5 years.² The clinics will integrate pharmacists as critical members of VillageMD’s team.²

Additionally, there will be 24/7 access to care via telehealth and at home visits.²

Since this announcement, Walgreens Boots Alliance has made a $5.2 billion investment in VillageMD to continue the companies’ push to open more value-based primary care practices within Walgreens stores.³

In her opening remarks, Lynch said that the CVS Health teams and MinuteClinic’s have supported more than 2.8 million patient visits year-to-date, which is up from last year by about 12%.¹

They also continue to offer test-to-treat programs and plan on implementing pharmacist prescribing, with certain conditions, to help patients with COVID-19.¹

“We are being very disciplined both strategically and financially as we pursue kind of our [mergers and acquisitions (M&A)] strategy. We can't be in the primary care without M&A,” Lynch said in the Q2 call in response to a question.¹

Lynch said that CVS Health wants to partner with another company to allow CVS to have physician’s offices where patients can go for annual visits or appointments, according to a CNBC report.⁴ CVS currently has MinuteClinics inside of stores where patients can get vaccinated or even receive urgent care.⁴ Recently, they added therapy for mental health to the MinuteClinic service offerings, according to CNBC.⁴

References

1. CVS Health Corp Q2 2022 Earings Call. CVS Health. August 3, 2022. Accessed August 17, 2022. https://s2.q4cdn.com/447711729/files/doc_financials/2022/q2/CVS-Q2-2022-Transcript.pdf

2. Murphy, J. Walgreens, VillageMD to open 500 to 750 full-service physician offices within next 5 years. Pharmacy Times. July 9, 2020. Accessed August 17, 2022. https://www.pharmacytimes.com/view/walgreens-villagemd-to-open-500-to-700-full-service-physician-offices-within-next-5-years

3. Walgreens Boots Alliance makes $5.2 billion investment to VillageMD to deliver value-based primary care to communities across America. News release. Walgreens Boots Alliance. October 14, 2021. Accessed August 17, 2022. https://www.walgreensbootsalliance.com/news-media/press-releases/2021/walgreens-boots-alliance-makes-52-billion-investment-villagemd

4. Reoko, M. CVS says it plans to get into primary care by year-end. CNBC. August 3, 2022. Accessed August 17, 2022. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/03/cvs-says-it-plans-to-get-into-primary-care-by-year-end.html