CVS Unveils Virtual Care Services For Aetna, Caremark Members

Modern Healthcare: CVS Health Launches Virtual Primary Care Platform 
CVS Health's new digital platform intends to give consumers access to health services on demand, whether they are at home or in a retail or community-based setting. Eligible Aetna and CVS Caremark members will be able to use CVS Health Virtual Primary Care to request remote primary care, chronic condition management and mental health services, in addition to being seen at an in-network provider in person, the company said Thursday. The platform will roll out to Aetna memberson Jan. 1, 2023, and CVS Caremark during the second quarter of 2023. (Devereaux, 5/26)

Modern Healthcare: Community Health Centers Face Trouble After Public Health Emergency Ends
A perfect storm looms for federally qualified health centers whenever the federal government decides the COVID-19 public health emergency is over. When that declaration ends, which isn't likely to happen until at least October, many community health center patients are expected to lose Medicaid coverage, which will leave clinics without reimbursement for services they provide. Planning for the future is further complicated by a pending funding cliff in fiscal 2023 and numerous other policy challenges. "It's very stressful looking for money rather than taking care of people," said Mary Elizabeth Marr, CEO of community health center chain Thrive Alabama. "We are the ones that take care of people that nobody else wants to take care of, and yet we're having to do all kinds of heroic things to try to raise funds." (Goldman and Hartnett, 5/26)

Dallas Morning News: Encompass Health Details Spinoff Of $1 Billion Dallas Home Health Care Business Enhabit
Enhabit’s business included 252 home health locations and 99 hospice locations nationwide at the end of March. It operates in 34 states. By Medicare expenditures, the company said its home health business ranked among the largest in the nation in 2020. Its hospice business accounted for just 1% of the Medicare hospice market that same year. “Although we entered hospice more recently than home health, we expect hospice to generate significant growth in the business going forward and to contribute to ongoing efforts to grow scale and density,” the company said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Home health care makes up roughly 80% of the company’s revenue, while hospice services make up the other 20%. (DiFurio, 5/26)

KHN: Betting On ‘Golden Age’ Of Colonoscopies, Private Equity Invests In Gastro Docs 
Mariel needed a new gastroenterologist. Having just moved back to San Antonio, the 30-something searched for a doctor to manage her Crohn’s disease, an inflammatory bowel condition that is successfully managed with medications and lifelong monitoring — including regular colonoscopies. Mariel booked an appointment and learned she would be on the hook for a $1,100 colonoscopy — about three times what she had paid for the same test in a different state. Almost three-quarters of the bill would be a “facility fee” for the in-office procedure at a colonoscopy clinic. (KHN agreed not to disclose Mariel’s last name because she is concerned speaking out might affect her doctor’s willingness to manage her medical condition.) (Pisacreta and Huetteman, 5/27)

KHN: ‘An Arm And A Leg’: Private Equity Is Everywhere In Health Care. Really
When a listener wrote to us about a pricey colonoscopy quote, we got curious. It turns out, a few years back, investors identified gastroenterology as their next hot-ticket item. Private equity companies are the house-flippers of the investment world, and they’ve found their way into many areas of our lives. Now, they’re at gastroenterologists’ offices, too, hoping to change the way these doctors do business and make a quick buck selling the practice down the road. (Weissmann, 5/27)