Tracy Bahl, Executive Vice President of Health Plans for CVS Health, discussed the reasons that payers must now interact with consumers in a different way, and how alternative delivery of care will help drive this interaction.

Tracy shared the notion that as healthcare is evolving, consumerism has put a demand on payers to interact in ways they’ve never done before. Members have gone from units of cost to be managed to consumers that need interaction.

Tracy sees the payer marketplace evolving over time into three distinct models:

1. National plans, which have invested in consumer engagement and brand and continue to focus on cost reduction
2. Blues that leverage a strong association bond and local market position
3. New Locals that are fragmented and have a community oriented, government program dependent approach

As these payers evolve, they will need to pull certain levers in order to interact with consumers. These levers include site of care, medication adherence, and engagement. CVS Health, with its MinuteClinic locations, its adherence programs, and engagement efforts such as its mobile app, can help to pull these levers on behalf of health plans across the nation. CVS Health is also investing in analytical tools to better understand consumer behavior patterns and how to influence consumers.

At CVS, Tracy is responsible for the growth, profitability and performance of the company’s business serving health plans, insurance companies and other health care payers. CVS Health operates over 9,600 pharmacy locations, over 1,100 MinuteClinic locations, and serves over 5 million customer per day in the United States. CVS also fills or manages over 1.9 billion prescriptions each year, and operates a PBM serving over 75 million members.