HHS partners with CVS Health to promote Healthfinder.gov

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has partnered with CVS Health to integrate the Healthfinder.gov app into CVS' web space under the name myhealthfinder. The application will appear on CVS.com and minuteclinic.com.

Healthfinder.gov was the first government website designed to share health information and to improve health literacy with the public. Myhealthfinder will take health information further to the public.

The partnership will put “lifesaving information about preventative services into the hands of millions…where they are already looking for it” said Karen DeSalvo, M.D., M.P.H., M.Sc., Acting Assistant Secretary for Health (ASH) and National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) in a post on HHS’s website.

Consumers visiting myhealthfinder can enter their age, gender, and a few other basic questions to find out what preventative steps they should take in order to maintain their health. The results include tests and doctor visits the consumer should plan. Many of the services suggested by myhealthfinder are available at CVS’s MinuteClinic locations.

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The partnership is designed to make the public aware of preventative healthcare. In a press release announcing the partnership, Andrew Sussman, M.D., MinuteClinic president and executive vice president/associate chief medical officer, CVS Health, said "We know that prevention is key to helping families stay healthy, so we are pleased to work with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to give people easy access to more information about the preventive services clinically recommended for them."

Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, preventative care has become a major priority for patients and health plans.

CVS is the first private company to collaborate with HHS to promote myhealthfinder. HHS has made a “free, publically available application programming interface (API)” ready for third-party developers to use in other apps, websites or wearable devices.