CVS Health is melding a program designed to
help those who’ve suffered an opioid overdose into its widening effort to
address social determinants of health.
The effort by CVS Health and its Aetna health
insurance unit comes as insurers roll out strategies to move into their
communities and beyond the doctor’s office to reduce costs and improve
outcomes.
In this case, CVS is working to bolster
Aetna’s “Guardian Angel” program initially in North Carolina where it will be
supported by Unite Us, a social care coordination platform that uses its
technology to connect healthcare and providers of social services. Financial
terms of the partnership weren’t disclosed, but it’s expected to eventually be
expanded given Aetna’s Guardian Angel program is nationwide.
Clinical care managers in Aetna’s Guardian
Angel program will reach out to those in need after they have been identified
via the health insurer’s claims and related data before being linked to social
services providers via Unite Us. Opioid overdoses are a major public health
crisis with more than 130 people dying every day, the companies said, citing
statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Through this combination, clinical case
managers can use the Unite Us network of social services to connect individuals
with non-clinical support that can aid their recovery, such as community
resources to help with housing, food insecurity and financial assistance,” the
companies said in a statement Monday.
It’s tough to engage opioid addiction
sufferers, those involved say, but CVS said Guardian Angel has had success.
“The Guardian Angel program already has a high
engagement rate of about 50 percent because it connects with people in a
compassionate way during the time when they need it most,” CVS Health’s vice
president of health strategy and innovation, Dr. Daniel Knecht said. “We
recognize that whether a person is successfully able to fight addiction is not
solely determined by the medical treatment that they receive. Through the Unite
Us network of social care providers, people can more easily access support
within their community and have a better chance of recovery.”
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