CVS/pharmacy's Project Health campaign is ideal platform for more than health screenings

CVS/pharmacy has kicked off the second half of its annual Project Health wellness campaign, which is slated to deliver more than $15 million worth of free health screenings to multicultural communities across the country by the end of the year.



While this campaign, known as "Proyecto Salud" in Spanish, isn’t exactly a new one for the pharmacy retailer, that doesn’t take away from its importance. This campaign further illustrates the vital role that community pharmacy plays along the frontlines of U.S. health care and is especially timely given the fact that healthcare reform looms on the horizon.



Aside from the array of free health risk assessments that will be available to participants — which is no doubt very important — CVS/pharmacy stated that it will have health insurance experts on hand to provide information about the new health insurance marketplace and the coverage options under the new healthcare law. This is a very good move, especially when you look at some of the stats.



According to a March 2013 poll by The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, three years after passage, a majority of Americans (57%) said they do not have enough information about the ACA to understand how it will affect them.  And this share rose to two-thirds among some of the key groups the law was designed to help: the uninsured (67%) and those with incomes below $40,000 (68%).



Note the fact that CVS/pharmacy reports about 45% of past attendees were uninsured.



And, when asked how much they have heard about their own state’s decision on whether to create a state-run exchange, roughly half the public (48%) reported hearing “nothing at all,” while just over 1-out-of-5 had heard “a lot” (7%) or “some” (15%), according to the poll.



As CVS/pharmacy clearly understands, the Project Health wellness campaign is an ideal platform to not only help consumers live healthier lives via preventive screenings but to also connect with consumers and provide them with critical healthcare reform information.