CVS Health Gives Employers Access to COVID-19 Testing Solutions

Update 6/29/2020: This article has been updated to include a statement from CVS Health on Aetna’s role in the Return Ready program. 

As payers support employers navigating the return to the workplace, CVS Health launched a COVID-19 testing strategy for employers whose workforces are returning to the workplace and academic populations returning to campus.

“Organizations can rely on our customizable return to worksite and campus solution, which will evolve and adapt to include the latest COVID-19 testing technology and clinical protocols to meet their specific population health management needs," said Troyen Brennan, MD, MPH, chief medical officer and executive vice president at CVS Health.

“Return Ready is one more way that we're increasing access to COVID-19 testing options whether in the local community at CVS Pharmacy locations or where people work and study.”

For the testing process, the Return Ready program offers on-site testing professionals and digital solutions to help collect and share testing data across testing locations. The process includes both point-of-care testing which delivers results in minutes and third-party lab testing which has a longer interim between testing and results.

"From its inception, interest from our current employer client base helped advance and shape the development of Return Ready, and we have shared its availability with existing CVS Caremark and Aetna employer clients and have also been having conversations with employers that are not a client of CVS Health," a CVS Health spokesperson told HealthPayerIntelligence.

If an employer chooses to conduct screenings on location, CVS Health would set up a secure coronavirus testing site. This would be recommended for companies and universities located in densely populated areas, in which case more immediate results may be preferable.

Alternatively, employers can send employees to CVS Pharmacy drive-thrus with coronavirus testing capabilities. It may take longer for these results to come back, meaning that this would be best for a large number of geographically dispersed employees. Some combination of these options is also available as an option.

The program also offers peripheral solutions. For instance, employers can receive a clinical consultation, guidance for COVID-19 workplace screenings, and a toolkit with messaging for employee and student populations. Participants also have access to data analytics technologies that display not only employee test results and trends, but also state and federal trends.

Aside from strictly coronavirus-related solutions, employers can choose to implement an on-site immunization clinic. This provides employees with access to vaccination services that are in accordance with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines.

In addition to these core program assets, participants may select other offerings like thermal scanners and contact tracing solutions.

CVS Health was among the payers that participated in the public-private partnership spearheaded by the Trump administration to deliver COVID-19 testing.

CVS Health joined other payers in eliminating treatment cost-sharing and co-pays early in the crisis.

This new program represents just one of the ways that payers can step up to support employer and provider partners as some workplaces prepare for a return to the office environment.

“Payers will have a major role to play in reinforcing and aligning providers with practices for testing, tracing, and isolation,” stated a McKinsey report published in April.

The report highlighted four areas that payers should be considering regarding

• Taking steps toward alignment with providers around testing, tracing, and isolation policies
• Preparing for resurgence scenarios
• Expanding provider capacity if there is a resurgence
• Handling the non-COVID-19 care demand surge

The report recommended adjusting provider reimbursement to align incentives, enabling data-sharing to create strong guidelines, increasing member engagement to support adherence to the proper protocols especially for at-risk members, and advocating for partnerships to meet needs like testing kit distribution.

“Return Ready builds on CVS Health's commitment to helping the country on its path forward by making COVID-19 testing available to consumers, the business community, universities and vulnerable populations impacted by the virus,” the payer explained in the press release.

As employers steer through this transition into the workplace environment, payers have an opportunity to demonstrate greater support.