WOONSOCKET, R.I. — CVS Health has pledged a $20 billion investment over the next decade to accelerate digital transformation in health care, the company announced during the “Make Health Tech Great Again” event at the White House on July 30. The commitment aligns CVS Health with more than 60 other health care and technology companies supporting the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Health Tech Ecosystem initiative.
“With the commitments made by these entrepreneurial companies today, we stand ready for a paradigm shift in the U.S. health care system for the benefit of patients and providers,” CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said in a press release.
“At CVS Health, we are reimagining the health care experience to be consumer directed, proactive and fully integrated, minimizing healthcare friction and transforming access, cost, and quality of care,” said Tilak Mandadi, CVS Health Executive Vice President, Ventures and Chief Experience and Technology Officer. “We are pleased to join with others in government and the private sector, leading the way to Make Health Tech Great Again.”
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The goal of the CMS initiative is to create a next-generation digital health ecosystem that improves data sharing, patient experience, and interoperability across providers, payers, pharmacies, and digital tools. CVS Health’s investment will fund the development of an open technology platform designed to break down the communication silos that currently fragment the U.S. health care system.
CVS Health emphasized that the system-wide inability of health care platforms to communicate with each other remains a key barrier to delivering effective and coordinated care. Its solution: a modern digital infrastructure capable of seamlessly connecting patients, providers, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), insurers, and digital health services.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to transform health care,” said Tony Ambrozie, CVS Health Senior Vice President and Chief Digital and Technology Officer for Pharmacy and Consumer Wellness, who attended the White House event. “How the private sector and government collaborate on this will be vital to creating a health care system that’s truly built to serve patients. We can make health care simpler and more efficient – leading to better experiences and better health outcomes.”
