CVS Caremark, Dovetail Health partner to prevent avoidable hospital readmissions

Industry research finds that one in five seniors are readmitted to the hospital within 30 days of discharge, representing a prevalent and costly issue for health plan sponsors.  Moreover, it is estimated that nearly 70 percent of adverse health events that take place after hospital discharge are related to medication management issues.  To address this issue, CVS Caremark (NYSE: CVS) and Dovetail Health, a leading provider of transitional care services, today announced a partnership designed to prevent avoidable hospital readmissions in large part by helping patients better manage and understand their medication regimens after they are discharged from a hospital.  Pursuant to the partnership, Dovetail will provide plan members whose pharmacy benefits are administered by CVS Caremark with comprehensive in-home medication counseling conducted by a Pharmacist Care Manager and focused on medication safety and adherence.

"Dovetail Health will help CVS Caremark clients deal with the high prevalence of hospital readmissions, which are costly and have a negative impact on members' health outcomes," said Troyen A. Brennan, MD, MPH, executive vice president and chief medical officer of CVS Caremark. "Very often these patients are taking multiple medications and are trying to navigate a variety of treatment guidelines provided by their primary care physician and the hospital discharge team, all of which can complicate medication safety and adherence.  Our research shows that the intervention of a clinical pharmacist helps patients better understand their medications and avoid potential barriers to recovery after coming home from the hospital."

The integrated readmission prevention offering will use risk stratification and predictive modeling to identify patients at greatest risk for hospital readmission.  High risk patients will receive an in-home consultation with a clinical pharmacist shortly after discharge, which includes a comprehensive drug therapy review, care plan development to mitigate the greatest readmission risk factors such as chronic illness management, health coaching and care coordination with the patient's health care provider.  Patients will continue to receive ongoing counseling support from a clinical pharmacist for up to 90 days to continue to monitor progress and encourage active participation in their treatment and adherence to their prescribed medication regimen.  Patients identified to be at moderate risk will be targeted for a 90 day telephonic program that will include an initial comprehensive medication review by a pharmacist and ongoing care coordination with other health care providers.

"Dovetail is focused on reducing unnecessary medical expenditures by supporting the highest risk patients with coordinated care to help them successfully transition back to their homes following a hospitalization," said Stever Aubrey, Chief Executive Officer of Dovetail Health. "We have found that in-home Pharmacist Care Managers are uniquely qualified to assess and mitigate the most urgent readmission risk factors.  Being able to coordinate ongoing follow-up with a CVS Caremark pharmacist via telephone for 90 days post-discharge further magnifies the impact of the program and empowers patients to take charge of their health and stay out of the hospital."

It is expected that by focusing on the highest risk patients, the program will reduce readmission rates overall, creating significant financial savings and improved clinical outcomes. CVS Caremark and Dovetail Health plan to initiate a pilot program in early 2012 and will make this offering available to CVS Caremark PBM clients later next year.