Partnership with American Well, Cleveland Clinic seen as first

BOSTON — CVS Health’s MinuteClinic has teamed up with the Cleveland Clinic and American Well to provide telehealth services in Ohio and West Virginia.

Telehealth solution provider American Well said Wednesday that the collaboration marks a first for the industry. Under the arrangement, American Well telehealth services will connect Cleveland Clinic providers with MinuteClinic customers in Ohio for online and mobile doctor visits.

Cleveland Clinic has built various telehealth programs around American Well’s platform, including its Express Care Online consumer offering. American Well said MinuteClinic will offer its technology and services to provide telehealth to customers in Ohio as well as West Virginia.

“Telehealth further expands on our high-quality and convenient service to our customers. In fact, from our own research, we’ve found that 95% of patients were highly satisfied with the care they received, the ease with which telehealth technology was integrated into the visit, and the timeliness and convenience of their care,” MinuteClinic president Andrew Sussman said in a statement.

“We are looking forward to explore new and innovative ways to improve access to patient care with American Well and Cleveland Clinic,” added Sussman, who’s also executive vice president and associate chief medical officer at CVS Health.

Boston-based American Well noted that through the partnership, consumers have more choices of how they seek care and get a medical diagnosis and treatment. In a 2015 American Well survey, 70% of consumers said they prefer an online video visit to an in-office setting to obtain a common prescription.

“CVS and Cleveland Clinic share our vision for a future health care system in which telehealth plays a critical role in connecting patients with trusted providers,” stated Ido Schoenberg, chairman and chief executive officer of American Well. “This three-way partnership is significant in that, for the first time, Cleveland Clinic doctors will be available to MinuteClinic customers in Ohio via telehealth, creating a highly impactful combination of services that greatly enhance the patient experience. This is the future of telemedicine — or simply, medicine.”

The new telehealth service stems from American Well’s ongoing collaboration with CVS Health and its partnership with Cleveland Clinic. CVS has had a clinical affiliation with Cleveland Clinic since 2009.

“Our long-term view of telehealth is that it’s not only a new, welcome service that we can offer our existing patients, but it’s a way for Cleveland Clinic to extend our reach and serve more people who need help,” commented Peter Rasmussen, medical director of distance health at Cleveland Clinic. “We believe that it is important to remove barriers to great care like time, travel and distance, and we’re making that possible through this partnership in Ohio.”