CVS Health CEO Karen Lynch

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Primary Care

CVS Shifts Store Strategy to Omnichannel Healthcare

Consumers’ growing preference for omnichannel services has put a lot of pressure on brick-and-mortar retailers to adjust to the times or risk losing business, a message that CVS has clearly received as it looks to move beyond its corner drugstore image.

CVS Health announced that it will close 900 stores over the next three years, equaling roughly 9% of the company’s US footprint. The closures are part of a broader strategy overhaul to focus more attention on digital growth while reimaging its stores as healthcare destinations.

The foundation of CVS’ future retail strategy involves three new store formats:

• Sites dedicated to offering primary care services
• HealthHUBs designed for everyday health and wellness needs
• Traditional CVS Pharmacies with prescription services and personal care products 

The move into primary care is particularly interesting. CVS’ current Minute Clinics use RNs for services such as physicals or flu shots, while generating referrals for nearby primary care providers. Although it’s unclear whether CVS will staff physicians in its new formats, the move suggests it is attempting to keep these patients in its ecosystem.

Other synergies are possible with CVS’ payor arm Aetna, which already provides plans nudging members to visit MinuteClinics by charging lower copays. The local density of people with Aetna coverage will factor into the decision of which stores to close, and CVS hopes to capture the downstream benefits resulting from preventative screenings.

The Takeaway

At a time when digitally-native competitors like Amazon are flooding into the healthcare space, CVS is aiming to leverage its biggest advantage over these new entrants: its physical presence.

If CVS can successfully transition its stores into healthcare destinations, its scale would allow it to serve thousands of patients per day, expanding access to primary care while driving in-store volume of wellness products and long-term gains for Aetna members.

Patient Engagement

CHIME: Patient Engagement on the Rise in 2021

CHIME’s recently released 2021 Digital Health Most Wired Survey explores how the pandemic and regulatory changes have fueled a surge in adoption for patient engagement technology over the past year.

The survey of nearly 750 healthcare organizations offering acute, ambulatory, and long-term post-acute care (LTPAC) assesses the progress these providers are making on their digital transformations, offering insight into the adoption of several new technologies.

Patient Telehealth Use Stabilizes

• Telehealth use has stabilized as a hybrid care option for most organizations
• 77% reported that >10% of patients used telehealth in 2021 (up from 67% in 2020)
• 26% reported that >25% of patients used telehealth in 2021 (down from 32% in 2020)

Patient Portals Expand Capabilities

• 88% of ambulatory care organizations report that >25% of patients accessed their portal in the last year, vs. 83% for acute and 82% for LTPAC
• Many portal capabilities are now considered standard, with test results and secure messaging all adopted by >90% of organizations
• OpenNotes access saw the most dramatic growth, up to 89% adoption in 2021 (vs. 65% in 2020)

Mobile Apps Gain Functionality

• Most common mobile app capabilities are text reminders (86%), EHR access (84%), prescription renewal (84%), and visit scheduling (80%)
• Service pricing lists saw the most growth in 2021, up 22% in 2021 (50% adoption)
• LTPAC organization apps have a wide feature gap, with text appointment reminders and wayfinding functionality each 18% less common than in acute and ambulatory care apps

The Takeaway

The rising adoption of new patient portal and mobile app features underscores the fact that most healthcare organizations have been fairly agile in their response to the pandemic, aiming to provide patients with greater transparency into their own care.

Telehealth’s continued climb in utilization is balanced by the fact that fewer providers are using it as their only way to offer care like during the pandemic, and instead viewing it as a core component of a modern patient experience.

Nuance’s Patient Engagement Must-Haves

Consumer demands are shifting, and they’re looking to get more out of their digital health technology. Nuance outlines the 5 must-haves for your patient engagement strategy here.

The Wire

• Smartphone Wound Diagnosis: A recent study published in Nature investigated whether a smartphone-delivered wound assessment tool could expedite diagnosis of postoperative surgical site infections (SSI). 492 patients were randomised (smartphone intervention: 223; routine care: 269), with the smartphone group demonstrating 3.7-times higher odds of SSI diagnosis within 7 postoperative days, indicating that smartphone-delivered wound follow-up is can facilitate earlier SSI diagnosis and expedite triage to the appropriate level of care.

• EasyHealth Expansion: The largest digital health funding round of the week belongs to EasyHealth, which raised a mammoth $135m to help build its “end-to-end Medicare platform” designed to help members identify the best plan and support them through their care journey. EasyHealth not only makes it easier to engage patients, but leverages a proprietary risk analytics model to help with early identification of potential health concerns, improving outcomes for all stakeholders.

• Telehealth Predictions: A new report from Forrester estimates that 60% of virtual care visits in 2022 will be related to mental health, with analysts predicting that mental health will be the first specialty to transition to virtual or hybrid care models at scale. Forrester attributes virtual care’s strong mental health adoption to improved accessibility for underserved populations, and points out that rising competition has the potential to improve telehealth’s value in the near term.

• Alira Acquires Patchai: Healthcare consultancy Alira Health announced its acquisition of Patchai, a digital health technology company that helps patients adhere to study protocols or care plans through the use of an “empathetic virtual companion.” The Patchai companion delivers personalized interactions to patients and relays collected data back to providers in real time, which the company reports raises a patients’ protocol adherence up to 95%.

• Virtual Engagement: The latest research from GoodRx shows that 40% of patients interact with providers more frequently because of telehealth, with 11% reporting that they interact with providers “much more often because of virtual care.” Going forward, over 60% of patients plan on combining telehealth with in-person visits, but GoodRx encourages providers to be mindful of telehealth no-show rates, which 45% of providers report are higher than in-person no-shows.

• MedArrive Series A: Remote care startup MedArrive raised a $25m Series A round ($30m total funding) to accelerate the expansion of its platform geared towards bringing accessible at-home care to vulnerable populations across the country. MedArrive enables payors and providers to extend medical services into the home by combining physician-led telemedicine with hands-on care from its network of EMTs, paramedics, and other skilled healthcare workers.

• Digital Inequalities: A metastudy in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity found that digital interventions like wearables and apps are ineffective in increasing physical activity for individuals of low socioeconomic status (SES). In the 19 studies included in the analysis, the mean difference in physical activity between intervention and control groups for low SES groups was 0.06 (vs 0.34 for high SES groups), suggesting that the people who would benefit the most from digital interventions “are being left behind.”

• Healthcare Map Expansion: Komodo Health is adding new demographic characteristics to its Healthcare Map, including patient race and ethnic data, in an effort to address racial disparities in healthcare. Komodo’s Healthcare Map compiles de-identified data for over 330m patients to provide a longitudinal view of encounters with the healthcare system, and the new characteristics improve the ability of the platform to identify gaps in care.

• McKinsey Hospital Survey: An October survey of 100 hospitals from McKinsey found that patient volumes have surpassed 2019 levels, with ED visits and procedural volumes rising as the pandemic continues to strain health systems. Around 70% of respondents indicated that staffing challenges persistently create additional backlog (25% of delayed elective care still needs to be addressed), with the backlog expected to grow further in 2022 as technology struggles to fill the supply gap.

• AptiHealth Funding: AptiHealth continues the surge of digital behavioral health investment with its recent $50m Series B round ($65m total funding), which it will use to expand its platform that streamlines patient referrals and engagement. AptiHealth gives providers the ability to refer patients to therapists through its online platform, allowing its health plan and health system clients to integrate physical and mental health care.