by Victor Montgomery
CVS Health, a CSG Associate, recently released a report highlighting the value it brought communities in 2021 through its enterprise response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Among other efforts, CVS Health partnered with Lyft’s universal vaccine access campaign to provide approximately 10,000 free rides for underrepresented minorities to vaccination appointments. Lack of transportation access and an inadequate number of pharmacies are the main practical barriers fueling health disparities in communities of color, according to health experts and research from the CDC.
To help reduce travel times to clinics and pharmacies, CVS Health used the CDC’s Social Vulnerability Index to identify historically underserved areas and closely collaborated with nonprofit organizations, including Easterseals, the Black Church Network and the YMCA to establish 14 community clinics and 18 “pop-up” clinics across nine states. Thanks to these efforts and others, CVS Health leads the nation in both COVID-19 diagnostic testing and vaccination, with approximately 32 million tests and 59 million vaccinations administered in 2021.
