CVS Caremark partners with Generation Health

NEW YORK Whether it is through its Maintenance Choice program, the MinuteClinic business or its ExtraCare Health card offering, CVS Caremark has been loud and clear in its mission to lower healthcare costs and improve patient outcomes. Now, the pharmacy healthcare provider is going one step further through a new partnership with Generation Health.

This partnership undoubtedly bolsters CVS Caremark's service offerings and comes as the company is working to retool its messaging to focus more on the total integrated offering and the savings the it can deliver payers, compared with focusing too much on retail.

Generation Health is a genetic benefit management company so the collaboration enables CVS Caremark to expand its pharmacogenomic clinical and testing services for its PBM clients. Through the use of genetic testing, there will be greater precision to client prescription management, which, in turn, is expected to improve individual health outcomes and reduce overall medical costs.

Furthermore, the alliance opens the door for the testing of certain hereditary diseases, and the elimination of unnecessary testing where evidence for clinical validity and utility is lacking. This is obviously an area that CVS Caremark believes is extremely important and will enhance its PBM offering as the company didn't just form a partnership with Generation Health but has actually made a minority equity investment in the company. And Troyen Brennan, M.D., EVP and chief medical officer of CVS Caremark, will sit on Generation Health's board of directors.