CVS Health adds Vida Health to its Point Solutions Management program

CVS will be selling Vida's Weight Loss solution to its employers

A number of companies have benefited from the increased attention being given to digital health during COVID, with a huge influx of customers who now have no choice buy to turn to these services. One of those is Vida Health, which saw over 500,000 new customers join in just a couple of months after the start of the pandemic.

Now the company will likely be adding even more new customers as it was announced on Wednesday that Vida has been selected to be a part of CVS Health's Point Solutions Management service. Specifically, CVS will be allowing its Caremark pharmacy benefit management (PBM) employer and health plan clients to offer Vida's Weight Loss+ program to their customers as part of a benefits package.  

"CVS will resell our solution to all their employers. They have done this with lots of success and we're excited that our clinically proven program will soon be in the hands of more people who need it," Stephanie Tilenius, co-founder and CEO of Vida, told me.

The hope, she said, is that the partnership will drive close to 1 million covered lives in just the first year.

"The CVS Point Solutions management offering is a great program that many top companies use to find effective digital point solutions. We're confident that many of these partners will find Vida's Weight Loss+ program fits really well within their benefit package."

Vida was selected after undergoing a clinical, business, and data security evaluation, which included testing of the end-to-end consumer experience by a team of CVS Health clinicians.

"CVS Health has a rigorous evaluation process, they do everything from reviewing outcomes, programs and solutions, to talking to references, and looking at social proof in the Fortune 100," Tilenius explained.

Founded in 2014, Vida Health connects patients with a marketplace of national providers, who cover a number different conditions, including hypertension, obesity, and diabetes. The company provides a collaborative care model that includes access to practitioners like coaches, licensed therapists, registered dietitians, diabetes educators and personal trainers to help members with chronic disease management.

The Vida platform also has over 30 health trackers and integrates with over 100 apps and devices, including scales, heart rate monitors, blood pressure cuffs, activity trackers and glucometers, which it can ship directly to employees or members. 

In addition to helping people with physical problems, Vida also helps its members with their mental health, offering evidence-based programs, such as cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness based stress reduction for problems such as stress, anxiety, depression and resilience. It also provides 24/7 access to therapists through text, audio and video. 

Vida's Weight Loss+ program combines mental health skills-development with personalized health coaching to change behaviors that affect weight. Members get access to a Registered Dietitian or certified health coach, with whom they participate in weekly, one-on-one sessions through text, audio and video in real-time. The program is personalized to each user, taking data from Vida's app and device integrations, along with medical claims data and biometric data.

The news of the partnership with CVS comes just two months after Vida Health raised $25 million in a funding round led by global life science investment firm Ally Bridge Group, bringing its total funding raised to more than $80 million.

"Being selected as one of CVS' partners helps validate what we at Vida already know: we have a leading edge mobile user experience, scalable technology and that our programs result in positive outcomes," Tilenius said.

"From our CDC certified DPP (Pre-Diabetes) program to our best-in-class weight loss outcomes, we're extremely confident and proud of what we've built and can't wait to expand into additional programs with CVS in the future."

First launched in 2019, CVS's Point Solutions Management program added five new health vendors in March: Hello Heart, Hinge Health, Livongo, Torchlight and Whil. Those five new solutions were in addition to Sleepio, a personalized digital sleep program from Big Health, making Vida the seventh company added to the program overall.

(Image source: vida.com)