CVS Health Expands Direct-to-Consumer Telehealth Service to 26 States
The pharmacy chain announced this week that its DTC telehealth service, which enables video visits through the Teladoc Health platform, has been expanded to eight more states. The service debuted in 2018.
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By - One of the nation’s largest pharmacy chains has extended its telehealth footprint to more than half of the country.
CVS Health announced this week that its MinuteClinic service is now available through the Teladoc Health telemedicine platform to residents in eight more states, bringing the total number of states capable of accessing the connected health service to 26 and the District of Columbia.
“We're excited to continue to expand the availability of MinuteClinic Video Visits across eight additional states as we continue to build our national practice for this service,” MinuteClinic President Sharon Vitti said in a press release. “The expansion of this MinuteClinic service enables us to provide even more people with access to an innovative, on-demand health care option and demonstrates our commitment to delivering high-quality care when and where our patients need it, at prices they can afford.”
CVS unveiled the direct-to-consumer telehealth offering in August of 2018, rolling out the service in Arizona, California, Florida, Idaho, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Virginia and Washington D.C. The company is now adding Arkansas, Connecticut, Hawaii, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas.
CVS has been battling retail giants like Walgreens, Rite Aid and Walmart for a slice of the DTC telehealth market, in an ecosystem that also includes Amazon, Apple and Google. Health systems and payers are also joining the arena, either with home-grown platforms or partnerships.
“With the increased demand for patient care anticipated in future years as a result of the expansion of coverage through the Affordable Care Act, the primary care physician shortage, aging of the population and epidemic of chronic disease, telehealth gives us the opportunity to offer high quality care to an expanded group of patients in a variety of convenient and cost-effective locations,” Andrew Sussman, MD, who was then Executive Vice President/Associate Chief Medical Officer for CVS Health and President of MinuteClinic, said in 2015, when the pharmacy chain launched its first collaboration with Teladoc.
For a flat fee of $59, CVS Health customers can initiate a virtual visit on the mobile device of their choice through the CVS Pharmacy app. The services is available to patients ages two years and older who are seeking treatment for a minor illness, minor injury, or a skin condition.
The service makes use of an asynchronous (store-and-forward) technology, requiring patients to fill out a questionnaire before being matched to a care provider in his or her state for a video visit. Prescriptions written out as a result of the visit will be sent to the pharmacy of the patient’s choice, and in-person or follow-up care, if needed, is arranged with the patient’s primary care provider or a convenient local healthcare provider.
