CVS Health Announces New Clinical Affiliations with Premier Health
Clinical collaboration with CVS/pharmacy and MinuteClinic will increase access to care and help improve medication adherence for patients
Woonsocket, RI and Dayton, OH (October 30, 2014) – CVS Health (NYSE: CVS) announced today it has entered into a new clinical affiliation with Premier Health to enhance access to high-quality, affordable patient care. Through this clinical affiliation, the patients served by Premier Health will continue to have access to clinical support, medication counseling, chronic disease monitoring, and wellness programs at CVS/pharmacy stores and MinuteClinic, the retail medical clinic of CVS Health. In addition, CVS Health will provide critical prescription and visit information to Premier Health through the integration of secured electronic medical record (EMR) systems.
CVS/pharmacy has more than 7,700 retail pharmacy locations across the U.S., where CVS pharmacists provide counseling to patients to help them be adherent to their chronic disease medications. Of the total retail pharmacy locations, there are more than 900 MinuteClinic walk-in medical clinics available. MinuteClinic locations are open seven days a week, offering evening hours with no appointment necessary and most health insurance is accepted. The clinics are staffed by nurse practitioners and physician assistants who provide treatment for common family illnesses and administer wellness and prevention services, including health-condition monitoring for patients with chronic diseases.
“We look forward to working with Premier Health to develop collaborative programs that improve patient outcomes, lower costs and help people on their path to better health,” said Troyen A. Brennan, MD, Chief Medical Officer, CVS Health. “Through this clinical affiliation, we will also be integrating our electronic medical records and information systems to enable us to support patients with medication counseling and chronic disease monitoring.”
Mike Maiberger, Senior Vice President, Value-Based Services at Premier Health added, “We are pleased to enter into this collaboration with CVS Health. CVS Health has proven to be focused on the well-being of individuals and the community at large, by encouraging the enhancement of healthful lifestyles, more healthy choices, and convenient points of access.”
The health care providers at Premier Health will receive data on interventions conducted by CVS pharmacists to improve medication adherence for their patients. The affiliation also encourages collaboration between the health care providers and MinuteClinic providers to improve coordination of care for patients seen at MinuteClinic locations. Physicians affiliated with the Premier Health systems will collaborate with MinuteClinic nurse practitioners to work closely on joint clinical programs and care coordination activities. If more comprehensive care is needed, patients can follow up with their primary care provider and have access to the services at the medical center as appropriate. For those patients who do not have regular access to health care, MinuteClinic provides assistance in finding a primary care physician and a greater opportunity for continuity of health care services.
“Finding cost-effective ways to increase access to care continues to be important, especially in this era of health care reform, and we are pleased to work together with Premier Health help coordinate comprehensive care for their patients,” said Dr. Brennan. “Many patients rely on their local pharmacist for information and support regarding their prescription medications and this affiliation enables CVS pharmacists to help improve affiliated health care providers' patient health outcomes through better medication adherence. MinuteClinic also plays an important role by providing patients with timely, affordable and high-quality walk-in health care.”
MinuteClinic, CVS/pharmacy and Premier Health will begin to work toward integrating EMR systems to streamline and enhance communication. This integration will include the electronic sharing of messages and alerts from CVS/pharmacy to Premier Health's physicians regarding medication non-adherence issues. In addition, MinuteClinic will electronically share patient visit summaries with the patient's primary care physician at Premier Health with the patient's consent. MinuteClinic will continue its standard practice of sending patient visit summaries to primary care providers who are not affiliated with the health system via fax or mail, with patient consent.
The new clinical affiliation announced here brings the total number of health system and health care provider affiliations for CVS Health and MinuteClinic to more than 40 major health systems and health care providers across the country.
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