CVS Health’s latest podcast highlights evolution, challenges of primary care

CVS Health is debuting its latest Healthy Conversations podcast featuring Dr. Sree Chaguturu, executive vice president and chief medical officer of CVS Health, discussing the evolution and challenges of primary care with Dr. Daniel Kraft, a Stanford and Harvard-trained physician-scientist, entrepreneur and inventor. Kraft also is the founder and chair of NextMed Health, a program that explores the future of health care.

“When we think about primary care, it is the foundation of how we deliver health care in this country. It's that trusted relationship that helps you navigate the complexity of the American healthcare system. It's somebody who knows you and helps you understand, what are your health needs and make sure that you can fulfill them. But when you ask people, "Are you satisfied with your relationship?" Almost 80% of individuals in America say that, "They're unsatisfied with their current healthcare experience." The average wait time to see a primary care physician is almost one month, 26 days. But when you do have primary care, great things happen. And what we see is, that you have a lower risk of mortality of death. So there's a lot of benefits of having primary care,” Chaguturu said.

"If you look at every dollar that's spent in the American health care system, only about five to 10 cents of that dollar is spent on primary care,” Chaguturu noted. “But we know that when you increase primary care spending, good things happen. You start to improve quality and reduce downstream costs of individuals’ healthcare experience.”

"In the wake of the pandemic, there’s been a renewed interest in the central role of primary care. “We will get there, but it will take all of us investing more and more into primary care, to make this vision a reality,” Chaguturu said.

To hear the entire podcast visit here.