Karen S. Lynch, President and CEO CVS Health 
Interviewer: Alan Murray, FORTUNE 


Brainstorm Health 2022 - The Changing Landscape Of Health Solutions 

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The Changing Landscape Of Health Solutions 


A conversation with CVS Health’s CEO on keeping consumers in focus and how the health solutions business is evolving.

Brainstorm Health 2022 - The Changing Landscape Of Health Solutions 


Karen lynch, thanks so much for being with us. Uh, sorry, you couldn't be here in person. Hi, thanks for having me. You know, I have a board meeting. So if I didn't have a board meeting, I certainly would be with you so thrilled to have this opportunity to talk to you today. Yeah, well, totally understandable. Look, you've been Ceo of cbs health for I guess just a little over a year, you took the job in the middle of a pandemic, but also in the middle of this dramatic strategic shift in the wake of the merger with Aetna. And I'd really like to start by just asking you how it's going. Are you have you been able during the pandemic to make the changes that you want to make in the organization. Thanks alan for asking it. As you know, when I took over our first and foremost responsibility was vaccinating America and we spent a lot of time making sure that we were, you know, putting some shots in the arms and you know, we had a big focus on the underserved communities and we've done, you know, phenomenal job, almost 60 million vaccines and at the same time, um, you know, healthcare is changing consumer behaviors have been changing as you know, so there's a dramatic shift in what people are expecting it from health care. And so as we were working on vaccines, what we realized as a company. If we really want to shift the company to be a broad healthcare solutions company so that we could meet customers where they wanted to be met either in the home virtually, um or in our community health destination. So strategically, we've made some pretty bold shifts, we've said that we were going to advance uh into care delivery. So we've always been in care delivery, but we're going to extend into primary care. And um what's the second thing we said we're going to do was really um extend into omni channel health and really connecting consumers and engaging consumers in various and different ways. And we would focus on pharmacy. And we've made tremendous progress in a very short period of time in advancing those capabilities. We also said that we're going to uh you know, optimize our retail portfolio. We had 10,000 stores. I announced that we would um shut down 900 stores over the next three years because we wanted to d identify, we're making tremendous progress we on that and we're retaining our employees and we're retaining our script, so we feel quite good about the progress that we're making um there as well. And then underneath all that, alan Um health care in the future will be digital and um you know, it will it will require big advances in technology and we're making those advances in digital and technological capabilities and I'm quite proud of the R 300,000 colleagues and what they've been able to accomplish in the most challenging times in America's history, particularly in health care, You know, even with the, as you said, even with the downsizing of the store portfolio, you're still gonna have 9000 stores out there. What how are those stores gonna change? We all use them, we all go in them. What's the physical manifestation of this change going to look like? Well, first of all, thank you for your business and I really appreciate it. So what we're going to do is we're going to have um primary care clinics and um as you think about the footprints that will have some primary care and I've been very transparent that we don't have those capabilities today, so we will um you know, we're looking at opportunities to advance those capabilities through acquisition, then we'll take and extend our services in the health hubs that you know, today, you know, we've broadened our MinuteClinic services and capabilities and then they'll still be the stores that are you're comfortable with today, the regular pharmacy stores. But what we're trying to do is really have broader access to healthcare in a in more um time when when it's more convenient for individuals today, it takes 45 to 60 days to get into a primary care and they're usually open from nine o'clock to three o'clock. Uh and what we're gonna do is we're gonna extend those hours, we're gonna make health care much more simple and accessible and that's our goal so that people can go when they want to go and interact with the healthcare system, um the way they want, interact with the system will also extend our services into the home because people um what we learned in the pandemic, people are comfortable with virtual care so much what we're doing here. Uh and then we'll extend our digital capabilities. So we um that's what the stores will look like, but we'll also x and interactions with our consumers in various ways because consumers are demanding that healthcare is delivered to them, just like every single thing and else in their life and health care has been behind. So we've got to catch up. Yeah, fascinating. I want I want to go dig a little bit deeper into mental health because I know it's something you care about deeply and there's obviously been a huge increase in focus on it during the pandemic, I assume in part because they're just more problems with people being isolated, but also because it's just gotten more attention and more of the problems that are out there have surfaced. How are you thinking about that at CVS health? Well, Alan, um as you know, it's very personal to me and um you know, what's happened and it's it is really the perfect storm if you think about the pandemic and as you've heard me say, mental health is the collateral damage of the pandemic. You've got rising inflation, you've got a war. So it's just the perfect storm to have people just um you know, stressing around what's going on in the world around them, 81% of Americans already are saying that they have depression or anxiety and what we're seeing, Alan is that um the that suicide is the second leading cause of death in the United States. And what what's happening right now is the youth of America is really struggling from um the experiences that they've had, the isolation that they have. And and we're seeing A 40% increase in attempts of suicide from Children from 10 to 24 years old. So as a company uh again it's access to health care, what are we doing about it? We're doing a number of things we put social workers in um our health hubs so that people can access, you know face to face or through virtual care. We've we've you know, continued to um have an extension of our contracts with um tell you know, with tele um virtual mental health and you know, we saw in our Aetna population, pre pandemic Allen, we had 8000 mental health visits virtually post pandemic, 18 million. So you can see the dramatic increase in people feeling much more comfortable with virtual mental health and obviously a huge rising um demand. We're also for our employees. We've activated um a relationship with um thrive. So we're, you know working on activities with Arianna Huffington and we're really excited about the extending, you know the services that she has to offer giving people our colleagues a chance to um you know interact and and and talk about their mental health. What I would say. Alain the silver lining and all of this is people are more willing today than they ever have than to talk about their mental health and to look and seek for alternatives for alternatives and care. And I think, you know, we, as employers have to really think about, it's not just the our employees, it's the families and we have to extend uh you know, are those services not only to individuals but their families and I think that critically important and you know, I mentioned that we just met with our customers, we just had a big meeting with all of our customers. It was the number one topic that all of our customers and these are big benefit managers, you know that they're grappling with mental health and they're looking for solutions. And that to me was just another indication that it's on the minds of everyone. And um I do think that this is something we're going to continue to grapple with. And I think, you know, with the company, we're looking for a number of alternatives to help people address this issue, but we have to focus on the youth. They're the ones who are struggling the most fascinating no sense that this is a temporary effect of the pandemic. You think it's going to continue. I think it will continue for a long period to come. We don't know what the impacts of the pandemic will be and I think it'll be a longitudinal issue that we're all going to be grappling with. Yeah, Yeah, Well, thank you for your your focus on that. Hey, Karen, I want to change the subject just a little bit here before we let you go. As you know, uh we have Fortune announced recently that Cbs and Fortune are partnering to create a new health vertical called Fortune. Well, I can tell you everybody at Fortune is super excited about it. It's going to be dedicated to helping our readers live better lives in every respect. We're going to provide coverage and tips on how to manage stress, how to stay active, mental health, brain health, how to make better lifestyle choices, better relationships, all the things that go into creating a truly healthy, productive and long life. And that last one is one I think about more these days than I used to. It's all being done in partnership with CVS. Uh so we're super excited about it, about getting it going and I I want to thank you for uh for having faith in us to do this. Well, alan we are super excited about it as well and as you know, we've been talking about this for a while and you know, one of the things that we learned through the pandemic is that people are taking their health more seriously and health is so personal and having access to quality information and accurate information is essential. And we saw on the pandemic when people didn't have accurate information and fortune has, you know, a strong brands um we'll be able to curate experiences and you know, I'm so excited because you know, you will be able, you know, we'll work together but you're a respected brand and um accurate information to improve the health of America. I couldn't be more excited and um like you said, people are looking for real quality content that they can rely on to address their mental health issues to extend their life and this is going to be a great partnership and I'm so excited and you know, we've we've had we've talked about this for a number of years and now it's really coming to fruition and I think this is gonna be exciting time for both our companies. Great, well we look forward to working with you and making progress on that one. Thanks so much for taking the time to talk with us. Thank you Alan