Working Together Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the country’s private sector has played a key role in helping communities fight the virus, in developing innovative technologies to assist state leaders and in promoting science and collaboration. The following articles were submitted by CSG private sector partners.
Working Together Toward One Goal Can Help Communities Fight COVID-19 by Melissa Schulman | Senior Vice President, Government and Public Affairs at CVS Health As we hit the one-year mark of the COVID-19 pandemic, I had the opportunity to reflect on our efforts at CVS Health to immediately and continuously respond to the needs of the communities we serve across the country. As a diverse health care services company with nearly 10,000 locations nationwide, we have utilized our local presence to help meet those needs during COVID-19. In the early days of the pandemic, meeting the needs of consumers and patients meant helping them safely stay home as much as possible as we were restocking our shelves, filling 90-day scripts, offering free prescription delivery, waiving copays and securing personal protective equipment, among other things. Shortly thereafter, it quickly evolved to providing greater access to COVID-19 tests and that meant opening and operating large-scale and retail drive up testing sites.
ISSUE 2 2021 | CSG CAPITOL IDEAS
In addition to drive up COVID-19 testing sites, CVS Health stood up community-based testing sites focused on meeting the needs of under-served neighborhoods. These community testing sites located across the country, from Baltimore to Los Angeles, have helped to ensure greater access and convenience to testing services. To date, CVS Health has administered more than 15 million tests at more than 4,800 sites across the country, which represents 70% of the testing in a retail setting in the United States.
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As the promise of the vaccine became increasingly real in late 2020, CVS Health was more than ready, having begun our preparations months ago. In October 2020, we were selected by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to provide COVID-19 vaccines in long-term care and assisted living facilities nationwide. More than 40,000 long-term care facilities across 49 states and Puerto Rico selected CVS Pharmacy to provide COVID-19 vaccines to residents and staff. We were also selected, along with other pharmacy chains, to administer vaccinations in our retail pharmacies as they became available to the general public as part of the Federal Pharmacy Partnership program. To date, CVS Health has administered well over four million COVID-19 vaccine doses to residents and staff in over 40,000 long-term care facili-
ties across the country. COVID-19 cases have declined in nursing homes which indicates that the vaccine is working, and we are delivering on the company’s commitment to help protect a population disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. Additionally, CVS Health is administering COVID-19 vaccines in over 20 states as part of the federal pharmacy partnership program and has built out a community-based strategy to address COVID-19 vaccine education and equity with a particular focus on Black and Hispanic populations. The strategy includes proactive patient outreach, community-based partnerships and vaccine clinics, and robust, education-focused marketing, all aimed at increasing COVID-19 vaccination rates. As our new President and CEO Karen Lynch said so well recently, “We are committed to reaching people of color and under-served communities to ensure health equity as we work to vaccinate all Americans. Our presence in communities across the country uniquely positions CVS Health to educate vulnerable populations and connect them with vaccine administration services.” As more supply becomes available through the federal program, we plan to expand to additional states while increasing the number of stores offering vaccinations. CVS Pharmacy has the capacity to administer 20 to 25 million shots per month. The last 12 months have brought incredible challenges and for many of us, me included, it has brought personal loss. I have learned a lot personally and professionally. Through my work at CVS Health, one of the greatest lessons I have learned during the pandemic is that working together towards one goal in public-private partnerships can make an incredible difference in the lives of millions of people. What we’ve been able to accomplish so far through the pandemic is a direct reflection of the tireless efforts of our 300,000 CVS Health employees across the United States, and I am extremely grateful.
CVS Health is administering COVID-19 vaccines in over 20 states as part of the federal pharmacy partnership program and has built out a community-based strategy to address COVID-19 vaccine education and equity with a particular focus on Black and Hispanic populations.
