With 500 clinics, CVS measures health care by the Minute
The convenient-care industry continues to evolve, and CVS Caremark’s MinuteClinic is no exception as the clinic operator works to drive utilization and expand clinical offerings to provide wellness, prevention and chronic-illness management.
“[MinuteClinic] is a microcosm of what you want in healthcare reform,” Tom Ryan, chairman, president and CEO, told analysts during the company’s most recent quarterly conference call. “It’s accessible, it’s affordable and it’s good quality, which are all the things that the administration and Congress were talking about.”
Today, MinuteClinic operates 500 clinics. During the second quarter, it hit a milestone as it serviced its 4-millionth customer, while traffic at the clinics was up 51% during the quarter and comp visits rose 33% year-to-date.
Utilization is, and will continue to be, a major focal point for MinuteClinic as it expands its service offerings and takes an even greater role in healthcare reform.
“The challenge for MinuteClinic is to drive utilization, and that’s where we are focused,” Ryan told analysts. “You are going to see it with the new leadership in the program. Dr. Sussman is going to work with [Dr. Troyen Brennan, EVP and chief medical officer]—we’re working with health plans, we’re working with physician groups, but the real rate-limiting step here is utilization.”
Andrew Sussman has been named president and COO of MinuteClinic and as SVP and associate chief medical officer of CVS Caremark. He succeeds Chip Phillips, who now serves as president of TheraCom, a CVS Caremark company that provides support to biotech and pharmaceutical manufacturers. Sussman, who joined the company in September, is responsible for all clinical services and daily operations at MinuteClinic. He also is in charge of the continued development of Minute-Clinic in retail healthcare services.
As it stands, the company added more than 16 million lives to its network during the second quarter ended June 30, and 80% of its visits in the quarter were third-party paid.
As far as services, MinuteClinic has expanded its offerings to reduce seasonality and generate multiple visits for each patient. It also has launched services for the treatment of acne and other skin conditions. During the second half of the year, MinuteClinic is looking to introduce additional acute services and will be moving toward the treatment of such chronic diseases as diabetes, coronary heart disease and hypertension, Ryan said.
In addition, MinuteClinic recently formed an alliance with Alere, a subsidiary of Inverness Medical Innovations that provides specialized health-management services for medium and high-risk patients and complex case management. Through the alliance, chronically ill patients served by CVS Caremark’s Accordant Common disease management programs will be managed and have access to expanded offerings provided by Alere. In turn, Alere customers will gain access to direct service by MinuteClinic nurse practitioners and CVS pharmacists.
That means that nurse practitioners working within MinuteClinic locations will play an even greater role in the health and well-being of Alere patients. For example, if an Alere nurse identifies a patient with heart disease who is not taking medications as prescribed, or who is not taking medicine for a common co-morbid condition, the nurse will communicate that gap in care to a MinuteClinic nurse practitioner or a retail CVS pharmacist when a patient needs a test or screening at a clinic or is scheduled to pick up a prescription. The patient then will be counseled to take action to improve his or her care.