CVS Health's MinuteClinic and Georgia-based Emory Healthcare are expanding their partnership to provide in-network primary care services at the retail clinics.
Primary care services at MinuteClinic will be made available to members in the Emory Healthcare Network, the two organizations announced. The goal is to provide additional options for people in the state to access primary care, driving better health outcomes and engaging more individuals with the health system.
Patrick Hammond, CEO of Emory Healthcare Network, told Fierce Healthcare in an interview the Atlanta metropolitan area and the state broadly both face a shortage of critical providers, and leaning on MinuteClinic and its reach can help ease some of that burden.
"We felt this was a really good opportunity to expand primary care in a different way to our community," Hammond said.
There are 35 MinuteClinic locations in Georgia, allowing for same-day visits. MinuteClinics also have evening and weekend hours or virtual services that make connecting more convenient.
Creagh Milford, president of retail health at CVS Health, told Fierce Healthcare that MinuteClinics largely serve younger, healthier patients, and their expectations around interacting with the healthcare system are unique, so having MinuteClinic as a network option expands the reach of primary care.
"What we've found in CVS surveys over and over is patients want access and convenience," Milford said. "And, if you offer those things in a primary care model, patients will engage in the model and MinuteClinic."
Emory and MinuteClinic have been partners since 2011, with MinuteClinics providing walk-in physicals, wellness exams and sick visits. The locations are staffed by MinuteClinic nurse practitioners and other advanced practice clinicians, with physicians from Emory serving in a collaborative role.
With the expanded partnership, patients who visit MinuteClinics for primary care will also have access to Emory's hospitals, specialists, and diagnostic and laboratory services. Both Emory and MinuteClinic use Epic, making it simpler to keep the full care team in the loop across different patient interactions.
MinuteClinic's primary care model is focused on prevention, with routine maintenance visits, chronic care management and critical screenings. Milford said that MinuteClinic has also invested significantly in behavioral health services, allowing it to integrate those into the patient care experience as well.
The MinuteClinic team is actively engaging with other major providers and payers with the goal of establishing similar partnerships in the future, Milford said. There is also significant opportunity to continue building in the relationship with Emory, Hammond noted.
CVS first announced plans to expand into primary care with its MinuteClinics in October. Milford said the goal isn't to pull people away from established relationships with their PCP but to open up options for people who may not have a consistent relationship with the healthcare system.
For instance, if a patient who comes to MinuteClinic for a walk-in later presents at an Emory emergency department, the partnership makes it easier to close the loop for that patient, he said.
"It's our belief, through all the data that we look at, that there is a large population in any given MinuteClinic that does not have a PCP or hasn't seen a PCP in a long time," Milford said. "And so if you think of that population, that's the folks that we're targeting."