Dive Brief:
- On June 24, CVS announced it has entered into clinical affiliations with four new healthcare organizations: 1) Sutter Health in California; 2) Millennium Physician Group in Florida; 3) Bryan Health Connect in Nebraska and 4) Mount Kisco Medical Group, PC in New York.
- CVS will provide prescription and visit information to its affiliates by enabling communication between secured EHR systems.
- The addition of the new affiliates brings the total number of CVS clinical affiliates to almost 60.
Dive Insight:
The affiliate healthcare providers will receive data on interventions conducted by CVS pharmacists in an effort to improve patient medication compliance. Through its affiliations, CVS is also encouraging collaboration between MinuteClinic providers and other healthcare providers to improve coordination of care for patients seen at MinuteClinic locations.
MinuteClinic, CVS/pharmacy and their affiliates are planning to work toward streamlining and enhancing communication through their EHR systems. This will include the electronic sharing of messages and alerts from CVS/pharmacy to the affiliate physicians regarding medication non-adherence issues. In addition, MinuteClinic will electronically share patient visit summaries with primary care physicians who are part of affiliate organizations when patients give their consent to do so.
CVS currently has more than 7,800 retail pharmacy locations and almost 1,000 MinuteClinics across the U.S. Given its size, it is likely that CVS will continue to reach out to providers in an effort to secure additional affiliates and may welcome others who wish to approach them.