HHS and CVS Health: Working Together to Put Prevention Info at Your Fingertips

HHS and CVS Health: Working Together to Put Prevention Info at Your Fingertips June 2, 2015 By: Karen DeSalvo, M.D., M.P.H., M.Sc., Acting Assistant Secretary for Health (ASH) and National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) This week at Health Datapolooza 2015, I announced a collaboration between the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and CVS Health to put lifesaving information about preventive services into the hands of millions of consumers where they are already looking for it—on CVS Health’s MinuteClinic.com and CVS.com/myhealthfinder websites. As a physician, I recommend preventive services, such as cholesterol screening, routine vaccinations, and wellness counseling, to help keep my patients healthy and catch diseases early when treatment is often more effective and less costly. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, the focus of healthcare is shifting from treatment to prevention and most health plans are required to provide coverage for certain recommended preventive health care services without co-pay, co-insurance, or deductible. In fact, today, about 137 million Americans have private insurance coverage of preventive services without having to pay a co-pay, co-insurance, or deductible—including over 55 million women and 28 million children. READ MORE: HHS and CVS Health: Working Together to Put Prevention Info at Your Fingertips