CVS partners with Amwell - is the future hybrid?

CVS Health has partnered with telehealth company Amwell to roll out its new virtual primary care service. The offering will give eligible Aetna and CVS Caremark members access to primary care, on-demand care, chronic condition management and mental health services virtually.

Why it’s Notable: 

• CVS has previously partnered with Amwell and the Cleveland Clinic in 2016 when they connected CVS Minute Clinic patients virtually to Cleveland Clinic providers. Now Amwell will help bring CVS’ virtual care platform to life, which will bring together many components of the CVS health ecosystem into a single integrated experience offering both on demand virtual and in person services (at CVS Minute Clinics). 

• CVS appears to be driving an ecosystem approach to healthcare. It currently has the capacity to integrate pharmacies, EHRs, drug providers, urgent care and now primary virtual care through this latest partnership with Amwell. Further to this, although they lost out on One Medical, CVS is now in talks to acquire home-health tech start-up Signify Health.

Industry Implications: 

• Although telehealth usage exploded during the pandemic, its usage has been declining since the height of COVID-19. In reaction to this downward trend, healthcare players appear to be moving towards a hybrid model approach to care. Similar to CVS’ new offering, for instance, tech giant Amazon’s telehealth service Amazon care offers both virtual and in-person visits. There is a place for both virtual and in-person care and a combination approach may well be the most compelling offering going forward. 

• Earlier this month, CVS also announced plans to acquire or partner with a primary care provider by 2023. This move would rival that of its competitor Walgreens’ partnership with Village MD and tech giant Amazon’s recent acquisition of One Medical. Soon we will be entering an era where there will no longer be the standard pharmacy and provider offerings but a variety of one stop shop consolidated healthcare players. 

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