Pharmacy retail giant CVS Caremark Corporation (CVS) has recently formed new clinical collaborations with four major health care providers to facilitate patients' access to high-quality yet affordable health care services. These include ProHealth Physicians in Connecticut, Texas Health Resources in Texas, Palmetto Health in South Carolina, and The Baton Rouge Clinic in Louisiana.

The Strategic Alliances

The beneficiaries of these alliances include all patients of the participating healthcare providers, including CVS Caremark. The beneficiaries will get clinical support, necessary chronic disease examination and expert counseling for the medication prescribed. Moreover, they will also gain access to the wellness programs at CVS/pharmacy stores and MinuteClinic – the retail health care division of CVS Caremark.

Per the terms of the collaborations, CVS Caremark will offer critical prescription and visit information to these healthcare providers through the secured electronic medical record (EMR) systems, by which they will remain interconnected. As a result, the participating healthcare providers will receive crucial patient data from the CVS pharmacists which in turn will help improve medication adherence among patients suffering from chronic diseases.

The merged EMR systems will enable the e-sharing of messages and alerts from CVS/pharmacy to the physicians of the other health care providers as well. Further, MinuteClinic also plans to share medical histories and visit summaries, via the EMR system, with a patient's primary care provider, once it becomes a member of any of the aforementioned participating health care providers.

Benefits

MinuteClinic locations are open seven days a week, providing the comfort of evening hours without any requirement for prior appointment. They are also staffed with nursing practitioners who provide treatment for common family illnesses and administer wellness and prevention services.

Such alliances encourage physicians associated with the participating health care providers to join forces to better care coordination activities and allied clinical programs. These alliances will open up a cost-effective option for patients to access efficient health care services through increased medical adherence.

The latest collaborations have brought the total number of health system and health care provider affiliations for CVS Caremark and MinuteClinic to 40, across the U.S. Management at CVS Caremark remains bullish about the collaboration and hopes to deliver affordable, high-quality healthcare to patients on time.

Zacks Rank

Currently, CVS Caremark holds a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Some other notable medical stocks that warrant a look include Amsurg Corp. (AMSG), BioGen Idec Inc. (BIIB) and Curis, Inc. (CRIS). All these stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

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