CVS Caremark Charitable Trust today announced the Community Health Centers that were awarded grants as part of a $3 million, multi-year initiative to support the development of community-based programs that focus on the treatment and management of chronic diseases. The Innovations in Community Health initiative is a partnership with NACHC that will provide 21 Community Health Centers with grants to help their communities through innovative and quality health care and health education programs that encourage prevention and management of chronic diseases—like diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, and asthma.  According to CVS “more than half of Americans suffer from one or more chronic diseases every year and chronic diseases are the leading causes of death and disability in the United States.”

Reinforcing the need for initiatives like Innovations in Community Health, CVS Caremark today also released the results of the CVS Caremark Chronic Disease Awareness Survey.  The survey pointed to lack of understanding of chronic disease prevention among respondents.  The study found:

• 28 percent of respondents think there is little they can do to prevent most chronic diseases.
• 40 percent of people think their diet has little to do with their risk of chronic disease.
• 32 percent think smoking does not have an effect on chronic diseases beyond lung cancer.

Models for primary and preventative care, Community Health Centers save the health care system billions of dollars every year by improving health outcomes through affordable community-based care. These grants come at a time when health care system changes are expected to increase health care coverage to millions and Community Health Centers are continuing to expand to better serve the projected influx of new patients.

To read more about the initiative visit CVS Caremark.