CVS Launches Virtual Primary Care Solution, Integrates Mental Health Services

CVS Health Inc. (NYSE: CVS) will offer mental health and other primary care services through a new single platform — ​​CVS Health Virtual Primary Care.

The Woonsocket, Rhode Island-based health care conglomerate will make the platform available to eligible Aetna members starting Jan. 1, 2023, and for eligible CVS Caremark members during the second quarter of 2023, according to a news release.

CVS Health Virtual Primary Care will help customers get virtual mental health services, primary care, on-demand care and chronic condition management. The virtual care providers on the platform can also help patients identify in-network, in-person care including access to MinuteClinic providers.

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“We’re meeting people where they are on their health care journey and providing care that is more convenient and easier to access,” Dr. Creagh Milford, vice president of enterprise virtual care for CVS Health, said in the release. “When we make it simple, we can help people lead healthier lives.”

CVS Health presently is selling the service to Aetna fully-insured, self-insured plan sponsors and CVS Caremark clients. CVS owns Aetna, a national insurer and benefits manager.

Through the new platform, patients will select physician-led Care Teams that can consist of nurse practitioners, registered nurses and licensed vocational nurses, the release states. The team will also consult with a dedicated CVS pharmacist when needed.

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The platform will also feature an interoperable electronic health record (EHR), but the release does not specify the EHR.

CVS Health operated more than 9,000 retail locations and more than 1,100 MinuteClinic, the company’s walk-in retail care clinic, locations as of March 30, according to public documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

But of late, the company’s leadership has heralded major developments in its digital strategies.

Earlier in the month, CVS Health CEO Karen Lynch said that the company conducted 10 million virtual visits just for mental health in 2021 — a 1,000x increase compared to 2019.

“This dramatic increase demonstrates the power of our ability to drive innovation at scale,” Lynch said.

During the CVS Health investor day in December, Dan Finke, executive vice president and president of health care benefits, said mental health is a key point of its primary care strategy. 

He also said that the company expected to provide 8 million virtual behavioral health visits to health plan members of Aetna. 

Thursday’s news is also another step in CVS Health’s evolving home-based care strategy. The company has spent the last several months exploring ways to shift mental health and other health care services into the home, whether virtually or through in-person visits.

“Where I sit is under that innovation umbrella,” Aman Gill, the director of product strategy and innovation at Aetna, told Behavioral Health Business sister publication Home Health Care News. “One of the other things I’m constantly looking at – and my leadership is, too – is, ‘What are different ways to deliver that care to the member where they want to be?’ One of our mottos is, ‘Let’s meet our members where they are.’ If they want to be in the home, let’s figure out how to make that happen.”

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