News Briefs: CVS Launches Extreme-Weather Outreach Initiative

CVS Health Corp. announced on Aug. 1 an initiative to provide timely excessive heat alerts and outreach to at-risk members of Aetna health plans. CVS is focusing on people “most vulnerable to extreme weather events that can worsen existing chronic conditions,” according to a press release. This fall, it will expand to people who are susceptible to reduced lung function, asthma and cardiac problems. CVS plans to make the service available eventually to its MinuteClinic and CVS Pharmacy locations. CVS said care managers have worked with “hundreds of at-risk patients” in 20 states since launching the initiative two weeks ago. 

Eleven Democratic Senators on July 23 introduced a bill, the Stop Corporate Capture Act, that would overturn the Supreme Court’s rulings last month that effectively repealed Chevron deference, a legal precedent that gave agencies broad leeway to interpret laws. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), one of the bill’s sponsors, said in a statement that the act “will bring transparency and efficiency to the federal rulemaking process, and most importantly, will make sure corporate interest groups can’t substitute their preferences for the judgement of Congress and the expert agencies.” A July 23 Reuters article noted the bill “has slim chances of passing in an election year in the Senate, which the Democrats only narrowly control.” Reuters also reported that a similar bill is pending in the House of Representatives.