Study: Consumers focus on health goals, chronic conditions
CVS Health solutions help address concerns, improve outcomes
Troy Brennan, MD, Former Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer
Study: Consumers Focus on Health Goals, Chronic Conditions
CVS Health Solutions Help Address Concerns, Improve Outcomes
While consumers are generally happy with their overall well-being and rate themselves highly in six key areas, many are struggling with effectively managing chronic conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure, according to a new survey from CVS Health.
The Path to Better Health Study asked 1,000 consumers and 400 providers nationwide about a wide variety of health attitudes, goals and practices. The study, which is in its second year, explores the way the health industry can help consumers achieve better outcomes, simplify the health care experience, and improve the consumer experience through new technology, business models, and partnerships.
The survey is part of CVS Health’s ongoing commitment to putting people on their path to better health, and aims to help them realize their goals across the six dimensions of well-being identified by prior research: financial health, physical health, emotional health, social connectedness, sense of purpose, and character strengths.1 Overall, survey respondents gave themselves high marks in these measures, but noted particular areas that they would like to improve.
Chronic Health Conditions are Driving Consumer Health Goals
Many respondents’ health goals focused on better managing chronic conditions, including diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity and weight issues, and mental illness. Approximately 60 percent of respondents age 65 and older2 report that they or someone they know are trying to manage hypertension, while 20 percent have diabetes or know someone who does.
CVS Health offers several solutions to help plan members better manage chronic conditions:
- Transform Diabetes Care helps reduce the complexity of self-managing care between doctor’s visits and improve health outcomes for members with diabetes. Building on the program’s proven success, we recently expanded it to include diabetes prevention to members at risk of developing diabetes, and those who have hypertension as a comorbidity.
- The ScriptPath prescription management system helps patients understand and manage their medications, improve the effectiveness of their medication regimens, and drive better safety and outcomes.
- ScriptSync prepares patients’ eligible prescription medications so they’re ready for pick-up on the same day each month. Among those patients, there has been a six percentage-point lift in medication possession after enrollment.
- CVS Health research shows that digitally engaged members are both more adherent and more satisfied. Refill reminders and scan-to-refill capabilities make it easier to have needed prescriptions on hand. Savings alerts and the ability to check drug costs can help address member cost concerns.
We’re also enhancing our solutions and support for chronic condition management through our innovative HealthHUB locations and expansion of MinuteClinic services.
Supporting Members’ Quality of Life Health Goals
The survey results revealed that, in addition to chronic condition management, consumers are most likely to establish health goals related to:
- Eating habits - 59%
- Fitness - 47%
- Better sleep - 45%
- Stress reduction - 43%
The majority of consumers — 95 percent — say their health goals are designed to improve their quality of life. The focus on overall wellness is evident in the growing role of supplemental benefits and solutions — including digital therapeutics — in treating a wide range of health conditions. Contracting with, and managing multiple digital and non-digital solutions, can be cumbersome for payors. That’s why we created Vendor Benefit Management (VBM) to enable clients to simply integrate management of third-party vendor solutions into their existing relationship with CVS Health and benefit from negotiated pricing, simplified contracting, billing and payment processing, standardized plan member eligibility usage, and outcomes reporting across multiple vendors. The first solution available through the VBM service, Sleepio, by Big Health, is a fully automated mobile and desktop app that uses cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to help patients dealing with poor sleep and insomnia.
In addition, we are launching a new program at select MinuteClinic locations to help transform the diagnosis and treatment of sleep apnea, making it faster and more convenient, to help improve patient care and outcomes.
Another critical health goal for many survey respondents is quitting a nicotine habit. CVS Health has led the industry with our “Be the First” initiative. With this nearly five-year-old, $50 million effort, our goal is to produce the nation’s first tobacco-free generation. We also offer smoking cessation programs through MinuteClinic and HealthHUB locations.
The survey findings demonstrate yet again that the health care industry needs to move from a model of episodic care to one that helps prevent illness, provides better care coordination, and meets consumer demand for more value, easier access, greater convenience, and expert help in making health care decisions. Our vision is to take advantage of our presence in thousands of communities across the country and redefine convenient access to high-quality care in lower cost, local settings, while creating an innovative health care platform that is easier to use and less expensive for consumers and payors.
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Image source: Licensed from Getty Images, 2019.
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