CVS Caremark Announces Agreement With ActiveHealth Management for Evidence-Based Clinical Decision Support

NEW YORK and WOONSOCKET, R.I., March 2, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- ActiveHealth Management, an independent subsidiary of Aetna (NYSE: AET), and CVS Caremark (NYSE: CVS) today announced a three-year agreement designed to help further improve the health of CVS Caremark members. Under the agreement, CVS Caremark will apply the evidence-based, clinical intelligence of the ActiveHealth CareEngine® to health care claims for its pharmacy benefit management (PBM) customers in order to identify opportunities for improved pharmacy care. CVS Caremark will apply the CareEngine to more than 800,000 members beginning in April, with additional membership to be added as CVS Caremark consults with its PBM clients.

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"The ActiveHealth CareEngine offers evidence-based information that can be used to improve the health care of our members and enables us to take our programs to the next level by seamlessly incorporating medical data," said Troyen A. Brennan, MD, MPH, Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of CVS Caremark. "This agreement will enhance our existing programs to identify issues related to gaps in care, potential drug-to-drug interactions and duplicative care – information that is important to bring to the attention of the member's physician."

As physicians, the founders and management team of ActiveHealth understand that given the frequency and amount of emerging clinical data, it is challenging for physicians to stay current on every issue that affects their patients. As a result, they created the CareEngine® System to address that challenge. Today, ActiveHealth's team of board-certified physicians, pharmacists and registered nurses constantly review the latest clinical evidence and guidelines and build them into the CareEngine System. The CareEngine then reviews the available clinical data on patients, compares it to evidence-based guidelines, and delivers Care Considerations (or "care alerts") that physicians can act on to improve care.

"CVS Caremark is a leader in pharmacy care and is committed to improving the efficacy of medication therapy. Our expertise in clinical decision support will help improve their members' health outcomes as well as better engage those members in their health," said Gregory Steinberg, M.D., CEO of ActiveHealth Management.

ActiveHealth's technology will help CVS Caremark identify and address gaps in care and other opportunities to improve care for its members. Research has shown that when acted upon, ActiveHealth Care Considerations have repeatedly demonstrated quality improvements and lower costs. In a study of more than 39,000 individuals, ActiveHealth's clinical decision support technology identified potentially serious medical errors for nearly one of every 20 people, and helped reduce hospitalizations among the study population by 8.4 percent(1).

"Initially, these messages will be shared only with members' physicians, but we believe there is an opportunity to improve member engagement and their compliance with pharmacy care recommendations by sharing that information directly with members. This is especially critical for patients with chronic or complex conditions who see multiple physicians and take multiple medications," said Brennan of CVS Caremark.

About CVS Caremark

CVS Caremark is the largest pharmacy health care provider in the United States. Through our integrated offerings across the entire spectrum of pharmacy care, we are uniquely positioned to provide greater access, to engage plan members in behaviors that improve their health and to lower overall health care costs for health plans, plan sponsors and their members. CVS Caremark is a market leader in mail order pharmacy, retail pharmacy, specialty pharmacy, and retail clinics, and is a leading provider of Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Plans. As one of the country's largest pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs), we provide access to a network of approximately 65,000 pharmacies, including more than 7,100 CVS/pharmacy® stores that provide unparalleled service and capabilities. Our clinical offerings include our signature Pharmacy Advisor™ program as well as innovative generic step therapy and genetic benefit management programs that promote more cost effective and healthier behaviors and improve health care outcomes. General information about CVS Caremark is available through the Company's Web site at http://info.cvscaremark.com/.

About ActiveHealth Management

ActiveHealth Management creates evidence-based health information technology solutions that deliver proven benefits in quality and costs. The company's patented CareEngine® System is developed by physicians and provides tailored and actionable clinical analytics and decision support to help improve patient health and wellness. ActiveHealth's full portfolio of solutions helps payors, providers, patients and other health care organizations collaborate to improve the care experience, reduce costs and save lives. More than 19 million people nationwide benefit from ActiveHealth programs. Founded in 1998 and headquartered in New York City, ActiveHealth is an independent subsidiary of Aetna (NYSE: AET). For more information, please visit http://www.activehealth.net.

(1) Javitt, et al. "Using a Claims Data-based, Sentinel System to Improve Compliance with Clinical Guidelines: Results of a Randomized Prospective Study," American Journal of Managed Care Feb. 2005; 11:93-102.

SOURCE CVS Caremark