Patient Care

Delivering whole-person care with a personal touch for patients with complex, chronic conditions helps improve outcomes and keep payor costs low.

95%
CVS Specialty overall
patient satisfaction

The enhanced CVS Specialty model provides a comprehensive view of patients with complex care needs and offers unmatched network access, proactive care management, complete infusion care and connected digital tools. Our integrated pharmacy benefit management, specialty, and retail pharmacy model offers patients greater convenience and support by moving beyond the traditional standalone specialty model to address the challenges of patient care. Patients can access their medications where they prefer without giving up the comprehensive clinical support they need from our specialized pharmacists and nurses dedicated to specific conditions.
 

95%
CVS Specialty overall patient satisfaction

Unmatched access

Specialty Connect offers members convenient access to specialty pharmacy services, with skilled clinical care and counseling provided by our Specialty CareTeam. Patients can drop off or pick up specialty prescriptions at more than 9,900 CVS Pharmacy locations, or choose to have medications delivered to their homes or a location of their choosing.Where allowed by law. In-store pick up is currently not available in Oklahoma. Puerto Rico requires first-fill prescriptions to be transmitted directly to the dispensing specialty pharmacy. Products are dispensed by CVS Specialty and certain services are only accessed by calling CVS Specialty directly. Certain specialty medication may not qualify. Services are also available at Long’s Drugs locations. They can also change their preferred delivery or pick-up location temporarily if traveling and as frequently as needed. 

Regardless of where they choose to obtain their medication, they receive comprehensive clinical support from over 11,000 colleagues within CVS Specialty and specialty operations. Patients can also synchronize all of their non-specialty prescriptions for pick up on the same day, which can help provide extra support to the many specialty patients who also take non-specialty medications.

16% 
of new autoimmune
patients start at retail		 97%
value choice in how they
receive their medication
16% 
of new autoimmune patients start at retail
97%
value choice in how they receive their medication

Did you know?
Using Specialty Connect, these patients have convenient access to specialty medications without having to contact a specialty pharmacy separately.

Did you know?
Using Specialty Connect, these patients have convenient access to specialty medications without having to contact a specialty pharmacy separately.

Proactive care management

AccordantCare has highly skilled nurses with deep experience helping patients manage chronic, complex and rare conditions. Together with multi-disciplinary CareTeams they help support patients through some of the most difficult times in their lives, so they get the most from their care. They do this by helping patients manage their conditions, close potential gaps in care and avoid costly complications that can derail care, improving health outcomes and while also helping control client costs.

AccordantCare helps improve health outcomes while decreasing payor costs:

11% fewer 
hospital admissions		 >$2,100 savings
per engaged member per year
11% 
hospital admissions
$2,158 savings
per engaged member per year

We use Epic, one of the largest electronic health record vendors in the industry, to help improve connectivity with health systems and more than 372K providers.www.epic.com, 2020.

Patients with complex, chronic conditions have specialized, often unique needs and challenges.Accordant Data Warehouse, Accordant Health Services Book of Business, July 2016 & June 2017 claims data. AccordantCare nurses bring hands-on advocacy to help patients navigate these conditions while optimizing costs for payors.
  • 1 in 3 are on a specialty medication
  • 1 in 3 visit the emergency room each year
  • 1 in 5 are readmitted to the hospital within 30 days
  • 3 out of 4 have a comorbidity

Patients with complex, chronic conditions have specialized, often unique needs and challenges.3 AccordantCare nurses bring hands-on advocacy to help patients navigate these conditions while optimizing costs for payors.

  • 1 in 3 are on a specialty medication
  • 1 in 3 visit the emergency room each year
  • 1 in 5 are readmitted to the hospital within 30 days
  • 3 out of 4 have a comorbidity

Complete infusion care

Coram nurses support
200K+
patients annually
Coram nurses support
200K+
patients annually

Coram, a CVS Health company, delivers nutrition and infusion therapies and education and support services through its specially trained, high-acuity nurses that are designed to support better clinical outcomes and lower overall health care costs for payors. Coram nurses conduct visits in patients’ homes or at one of Coram’s nationwide ambulatory infusion suites. Coram is the only national home infusion provider to have earned The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval for Home Care Accreditation.
 

↓4.51% 
unplanned patient
readmission rate		 94%
positive patient satisfaction
past 9 years
↓4.51% 
unplanned patient readmission rate
94% savings
positive patient satisfaction past 9 years

Connected digital tools

Innovative digital tools provide a more accessible, connected, and personal health experience, and intelligent medication monitoring delivers personalized interventions throughout the duration of a patient’s treatment, in their preferred channel, to ensure appropriate adherence while mitigating waste for overall health care savings.  
Patients can manage their specialty medications in real-time using the CVS Specialty mobile app, which offers convenience and adherence support with features such scan to refill and medication reminders. Patients can also use secure messaging to contact their CareTeam with any questions. In 2020, we sent 25M outbound secure messages across 36 conditions. Additional tools supporting care management and improved experience include symptom tracking, wearables and remote monitoring. Digital tools help patients get the support they need, when they need it, in a convenient, accessible environment for better costs and care.

86%
of specialty patients have opted in to receive secure messaging		 84%
of new specialty patients engaged with secure messaging are optimally adherent
86%
of specialty patients have opted in to receive secure messaging
84%
of new specialty patients engaged with secure messaging are optimally adherent

CVS Specialty continues to invest in digital innovation, investing $50M over the past 5 years.

The combined power of member engagement through digital tools, our ongoing innovation, and the care provided by AccordantCare’s specially trained teams is how the unique CVS Specialty model helps members self-manage their conditions, improve clinical outcomes, and avoid downstream costs such as adverse events and hospital visits.

Have a question about our Specialty programs? Ask Us

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Patient Care

Adherence results are based on CVS Caremark data. Actual results may vary depending on benefit plan design, member demographics, programs implemented by the plan and other factors. Client-specific modeling available upon request.

Actual results may vary depending on benefit plan design, member demographics, programs implemented by the plan and other factors. Client‐specific modeling available upon request.

All data sharing complies with applicable law, our information firewall and any applicable contractual limitations.

Data source, unless noted otherwise, CVS Health Enterprise Analytics, 2021.

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