CVS Caremark to highlight commitment to older Americans at American Society on Aging Conference
WOONSOCKET, R.I. — CVS Caremark is showcasing how it is helping aging “boomers” on their path to better health and its senior-focused initiatives at Aging in America, the 2012 Annual Conference of the American Society on Aging, which is being held in Washington, D.C., this week.
CVS Caremark announced that it will participate in a number of panels and workshops over the course of the conference that will highlight the company's past, present and future focus on the more-than-55 population. The company also will introduce a general session on the Political Landscape and Older Adults featuring House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Allyson Schwartz, D-Pa., and assistant secretary for aging Kathy Greenlee.
CVS Caremark stated that it continues to focus on being a leader on issues that are important to seniors, both as a pharmacy innovation company uniquely positioned to help patients improve their health while lowering their healthcare costs and as an employer that believes that "talent is ageless." The number of CVS Caremark mature workers ages 50 years and older has grown from 6% in the 1990s to approximately 20% today. Acknowledging this, CVS Caremark continues to work with public-private partnerships at the local, state and national levels to recruit mature workers into all facets of its workforce.
"CVS Caremark believes that mature workers are invaluable colleagues in the workplace and also play an instrumental role in our continuing commitment to provide innovative solutions for our mature customers," stated David Casey, VP workforce strategies and chief diversity officer at CVS Caremark.
The company also is actively promoting the concept of a "pharmacy home," which is especially vital for older patients who take two to three times as many prescription medications. CVS Caremark's research around medication adherence has shown that when patients use one pharmacy to fill all of their medications, they are more likely to take their medications as prescribed and can lower their healthcare costs by thousands of dollars annually.
"We have a unique understanding of what older Americans want from a pharmacy innovation company like CVS Caremark, and how to deliver on that promise. As we reinvent pharmacy, we intend to continue to be an active healthcare partner to the 10,000 people a day who turn 65 in this country," Casey added. "Our participation in this conference reflects how passionate we are about that."