Blog Post #2

1. Digital Tools and Platforms 

CVS use different digital oils to support optimal outcomes. The technological infrastructure deliver support to patients where and when they need it to better manage their condition and improve outcomes also enable CareTeams to offer targeted support tailored to each plan member’s unique needs, ultimately helping lower overall health care costs.

Secure Messaging 

Since introducing on-demand, secure, messaging between CVS SpecialtyCareTeams and patients, CVS Health has continued to expand the use and range of digital channels for patients to receive information about their care. As of January 2021, secure messaging is available to members across 36 complex conditions.

Wearable devices and apps

CVS Health have developed a wearable sensor for patients with multiple sclerosis to capture additional data from the patient experience.

This app interprets movements and tracks symptoms and walk test results from a patient with multiple sclerosis . The CareTeam receives and reviews data from patients using the MS app and wearable device to help detect new or worsening symptoms, document event occurrences, and provide early indications of ineffective therapy or dosing. This helps improve clinical outcomes, providing a more complete patient profile to help support better results.

With the positive results of the MS app. CVS Health piloted an oncology symptom tracking tool – enhanced with CareTeam support – to drive better outcomes and experiences.The app is designed to help keep patients on appropriate therapies, ensure they can
tolerate their therapy and manage side effects, direct them to needed care, and reduce emergency room admissions from side effects or symptoms. CVS Specialty patients can track their symptoms in real time and have the option to connect with their CareTeam through secure messaging for personalized support. This on-demand support helps them navigate to the right level of care – ultimately helping improve outcomes and potentially lowering overall health care costs.

CVS Platform

The platform CVS Health uses is called Vendor Benefit Management. The platform is aimed at streamlining the administrative processes required for health plans and employers to offer a suite of wellness options to plan members. CVS Caremark clients will have access to data on negotiated prices, simpler billing and real-time eligibility verification on the platform. 

The first company to partner with CVS on the platform is Big Health, which offers Sleepio, a digital tool aimed at improving sleep. Sleepio uses cognitive behavioral therapy to offer an individualized program to help people sleep better, according to the announcement.

With Microsoft as a foundation, CVS Health built an integrated data platform and suite of analytical and advanced machine learning tools to address the individualized needs of patients. The resulting patient engagement strategies
include mobile alerts for flu vaccines or an annual cancer screening, side-effect counseling from a pharmacist for a new medication, and even reminders for those at risk of developing melanoma that it's time to buy sunscreen. This personalized care is expected to improve patient outcomes.

The new solutions coming to the platform are: 

• Daylight: An app from Big Health that offers digital cognitive behavioral therapy for people with anxiety. 
• Naturally Slim: An online education program that offers personalized lessons on nutrition and strategies to lose weight. 
• Vida: A weight loss program that pairs patients with one-on-one coaching through phone and video calls. 
• Weight Watchers: This long-standing weight loss program has gone increasingly digital, offering an app that includes meal planning and recipes, fitness tracking and community support. 
• Kurbo: A digital health platform for kids aged 8 to 17 that encourages a healthier lifestyle through education videos, games and weekly video coaching. 

These five tools join Sleepio, Hello Heart, Hinge Health, Torchlight and Whil on CVS’ platform.

1 million Caremark members have access to Point Solutions Management, and that’s only expected to grow. CVS is also continuing to evaluate where there’s a demand from plan sponsors for digital tools for the future.  

The role of digital health in managing care is not expected to slow down any time soon either, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic accelerates the use of such tools. The goals of digital health and more traditional clinical care are “complementary”

2. Ethical or legal breach in the corporation’s digital history. 

In June 2021 CVS Health suffered of a database leak which lead to 1B user

records exposed online. The database belonging to the healthcare and retail giant, which was not password protected, was discovered at the end of March by independent cybersecurity researcher Jeremiah Fowler, according to a report published by Website Planet, which conducts research into unsecured internet data.

The database, which was approximately 204 gigabytes in size and totaled 1.1 billion records, had no form of authentication in place to prevent unauthorized entry, the researchers said.

The data exposed online included customer email addresses, user IDs and customer searches on CVS Pharmacy websites for COVID-19 vaccines and other medications, according to the report.

The data, collected from both CVS Health and CVS.com, represent website visitor logs that show everything visitors searched for, which is valuable analytical data for companies to see how customers are interacting with their platforms.

CVS Health said it worked with the vendor to quickly take the database down. 

3. E-marketing research and  tool used by the corporation and the outcome. 

CVS Health use extensive clinical databases — one of the broadest plan member health databases in the industry — to identify opportunities to help reduce costs

for clients and improve outcomes for their members. As a pharmacy benefit manager (PBM), CVS Caremark has access to millions of pharmacy claims, which allow a real-time look at the pharmaceutical market, enabling us to identify trends and patterns that can affect payors’ benefit spend. Analysts can also identify which plans could be most impacted by these trends.

The Interactive RxInsights tool allows account teams to review these patterns, using the clients’ own data, in near real time. This tool helps CVS Health proactively develop solutions, and make appropriate recommendations to address a specific trend.

References

3 keys to CVS Health's Growth Strategy: AHA. American Hospital Association. (n.d.). Retrieved April 13, 2023, from https://www.aha.org/aha-center-health-innovation-market-scan/2022-04-26-3-keys-cvs-healths-growth-strategy 

Darin, B. (n.d.). Using analytics to identify targeted solutions. CVS Health Payor Solutions. Retrieved April 13, 2023, from https://payorsolutions.cvshealth.com/programs-and-services/cost-management/using-analytics-to-identify-targeted-solutions 

Digital Tools. CVS Health Payor Solutions. (n.d.). Retrieved April 13, 2023, from https://payorsolutions.cvshealth.com/programs-and-services/care-management/digital-tools 

Lagasse, J. (n.d.). CVS health partners with Microsoft to advance digital-first strategy. Healthcare Finance News. Retrieved April 13, 2023, from https://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/cvs-health-partners-microsoft-advance-digital-first-strategy 

Landi, H. (2021, June 16). CVS health database leak left 1B User Records Exposed Online. Fierce Healthcare. Retrieved April 13, 2023, from https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/tech/cvs-health-database-leak-leaves-1-billion-user-records-exposed-online 

Minemyer, P. (2019, June 11). CVS launching platform to allow PBM clients to manage supplemental benefit contracts . Fierce Healthcare. Retrieved April 13, 2023, from https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/payer/cvs-launching-platform-to-allow-pbm-clients-to-manage-supplemental-benefit-contracts 

Minemyer, P. (2020, July 29). CVS adds 5 more solutions to its platform to assist PBM clients in managing Digital Health Tools. Fierce Healthcare. Retrieved April 13, 2023, from https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/payer/cvs-adds-5-more-solutions-to-its-platform-to-assist-pbm-clients-managing-digital-health-tools 

Blog Post #1

 

1. Name the Company. Tell me about the history of theFortune 500 corporation that will be the focus of your blog.

CVS Health Corp. is the largest U.S. pharmacy company and one of the nation’s largest health services providers. Its four business segments — Pharmacy Services, Retail/LTC, Health Care Benefits and Corporate/Other — encompass more than 9,900 retail drugstores (CVS Pharmacy), 1,100 walk-in medical clinics (MinuteClinic), a pharmacy benefits manager (CVS Caremark) with 105 million PBM plan members, specialty pharmacy services, a long-term care pharmacy business (Omnicare) serving more than 1 million patients annually and a health insurance unit (Aetna) serving 34 million people via health coverage products and related services, including Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D prescription drug plans.

CVS Health got its start in retailing. Founded in Lowell, Mass., in 1963 as Consumer Value Stores, a health and beauty products retailer, CVS branched into pharmacy in 1967 and then was sold to Melville Corp. in 1969, where as CVS/pharmacy it grew into one of the biggest U.S. drugstore chains. CVS was spun off from Melville in 1996 to form CVS Corp. The company delved deeper into health care in 2006 with the acquisition of retail health clinic chain MinuteClinic and in 2007 by merging with PBM Caremark Rx in a $26.5 billion deal to form CVS Caremark. The company acquired Longs Drugs (retail drug chain) in 2008, Coram (specialty infusion services) in 2014, Omnicare (long-term care pharmacy services) in 2015 and Target Corp.’s pharmacy business in 2015. CVS changed its name to CVS Health in 2014 and completed its transformation into a healthcare-focused company in 2018 with its $70 billion acquisition of health insurer Aetna

2. What business/industry are they in? 

a. What is their revenue? Support with data.
b. Is the corporation publicly traded or privately held? Provide support.

 CVS Health Corp (CVS Health) is a provider of health care and retail pharmacy services.The company offers prescription medications, health care products, beauty products, personal care products, and cosmetics. It also offers pharmacy benefit management (PBM) services, disease management and related services, and administrative services, Medicaid health care management services and prescription drug plans. The company operates long-term care (LTC) pharmacies for the distribution of prescription drugs and relevant pharmacy consulting and ancillary services to chronic care facilities and care settings. CVS Health markets pharmacy benefit managers, government funded health care programs, insurance companies, unions, public exchanges and health benefit plans’ sponsors. It markets through retail pharmacies, online retail pharmacy websites, onsite pharmacies, LTC pharmacies and MinuteClinic clinics. CVS Health is headquartered in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, the US.

CVS Health's revenue topped $300 billion in 2022, though profits for the full year did take a hit compared to 2021, according to the company's earnings report released Wednesday. CVS reported $322.5 billion in revenue for the full year, up 10.4% from $292.1 billion in 2021. Profit declined from $7.9 billion in 2021 to $4.1 billion last year, according to the report. In the fourth quarter, the healthcare giant reported $83.8 billion in revenue as well as $2.3 billion in profit, both of which surpassed Wall Street's expectations, according to analysts at Zack's Investment Research. By comparison, CVS brought in $76.6 billion in revenue and $2.3 billion in profit in the fourth quarter of 2021."2022 was a year of progress for CVS Health," said CEO Karen Lynch on the company's earnings call.

CVS Health Company is publicly held. Cvs Health stock last closed at $77.54, down 0.27% from the previous day, and has decreased 24.03% in one year. It has underperformed other stocks in the Healthcare Plans industry by 0.21 percentage points. Cvs Health stock is currently +7.54% from its 52-week low of $72.11, and -28.02% from its 52-week high of $107.73. 

As of Apr 5, 2023, there are 1.28B shares of CVS outstanding. The market capitalization of CVS is $99.57B. In the past 24 hours, 8.78M CVS shares were traded.

3. What is their mission statement? Look on their website.

The Mission Statement of CVS Health is: 

We can deliver health care in ways no one else can
Guided by our purpose, CVS Health® is building an entire world of health care around each and every person we serve, no matter where they are on their journey.
We listen, show empathy and deliver innovative solutions that serve people’s unique needs and earn their loyalty. Because how we deliver our services is just as important as what we deliver.
Looking ahead, we’ve put in place strategies that will help us give more people a higher level of care.

4. What products and/or services do they offer?

CVS sells prescription drugs and a wide assortment of general merchandise, including over-the-counter drugs, beauty products and cosmetics, film and photo finishing services, seasonal merchandise, greeting cards, and convenience foods through their CVS Pharmacy and Longs Drugs retail stores and online through CVS.com. 

5. Who is their targeted audience? Write a detailed description.

Numerator found that CVS's typical shopper is a white, urban Gen Xer who has a college education and an annual income of more than $80,000. The brand is also very popular among Black and Latino shoppers with similar education and income. The typical customer visits CVS every other week on average —

about 22 trips per year — and picks up 4 products for a total cost of $20.27 per trip, Numerator found. Prescription medication constitutes about half of CVS's revenues, and the drugstore offers a variety of over-the-counter medical supplies, personal care items, food and beverages. This retail segment accounts for about a third of the company's revenues. In addition to OTC pain medication and cough remedies, the typical retail shopper often prefers to buy candies, chocolates, and bottled water. Their favorite sweets brands at CVS are M&M's and Reese's, and they also buy a lot of Hallmark cards. Roughly 70% of CVS customers visited the store in both 2020 and 2021, a loyalty percentage that is slightly below the other major brands included in the survey. Even so, the company added slightly more new shoppers than it lost last year, suggesting that the brand's customer base is expanding. Just 1.6% of a CVS shopper's total dollars are spent at CVS, compared with 6.8% of their spending on Amazon. At other retailers, the CVS shopper buys more fresh garlic, hand sanitizer, bar soap, and non-dairy milk alternatives than the national average shopper. They're also big fans of fast-food chicken nuggets.

6. Other than the home country, in which other countries does the corporation operate?

CVS Health is not available to customers or patients who are located outside of the United States or U.S. territories

References 

CVS health. Supermarket News. (2023, April 7). Retrieved April 9, 2023, from https://www.supermarketnews.com/companies/cvs-health 

How much does it cost to buy one CVS health share? WallStreetZen. (2023, April 7). Retrieved April 9, 2023, from https://www.wallstreetzen.com/how-to-buy-cvs-health-stock 

International, B. I. (n.d.). Meet the typical CVS shopper: A white gen X college-educated city dweller earning a high income: Business insider méxico: Noticias Pensadas para Ti. Business Insider México | Noticias pensadas para ti. Retrieved April 9, 2023, from https://businessinsider.mx/typical-cvs-shopper-demographic-urban-genx-earning-high-income-2021-9/?r=US&IR=T 

Minemyer, P. (2023, February 8). CVS reports double-digit revenue growth in 2022, $4.1B in profit. Fierce Healthcare. Retrieved April 9, 2023, from https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/payers/cvs-reports-double-digit-revenue-growth-2022-41b-profit 

Our health services: CVS health. Our Health Services | CVS Health. (n.d.). Retrieved April 9, 2023, from https://www.cvshealth.com/services.html 

Our purpose: CVS health. Our Purpose | CVS Health. (n.d.). Retrieved April 9, 2023, from https://www.cvshealth.com/about/our-people/our-purpose.html 

Plc, G. D. (n.d.). CVS Health Corp Company Profile - Overview. GlobalData. Retrieved April 9, 2023, from https://www.globaldata.com/company-profile/cvs-health-corp/ 

Plc, G. D. (n.d.). Number of CVS health stores globally (FY2016 – FY2021). GlobalData. Retrieved April 9, 2023, from https://www.globaldata.com/data-insights/retail-amp-wholesale/number-of-cvs-health-stores-globally/