Mass General Brigham, CVS Take On the Primary Care Access Shortage

A proposal to enable access to MGB services through 37 MinuteClinics across Massachusetts could help more than 100,000 residents.

Mass General Brigham is banking on the evolution of healthcare clinics in pharmacies with a proposal to offer healthcare services through 37 CVS MinuteClinics spread across Massachusetts.

If done right, MGB officials say they could give 120,000 residents better access to care.

The health system and MinuteClinic, a subsidiary of CVS Pharmacy, filed notices with the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission (MHPC) in June to give MinuteClinic patients access to MGB’s care network, first at the clinic and then, if necessary, through referrals to a hospital or specialists in the MGB network.

The proposal gives MGB another outlet to address barriers to healthcare access, while MinuteClinic becomes part of MGB’s healthcare network and ACO. It also signals the pharmacy chain’s interest in diversifying from urgent and convenient care visits to establishing a continuing relationship with its patrons through primary care.

It’s not a new concept. Health systems across the country have been trying, with mixed success, to boost access through a wide variety of channels, from kiosks and telehealth stations in public locations lie libraries, community centers and banks to partnerships with retail locations like pharmacies and supermarkets.

[Read also: Healthcare Leaders Are Redefining the Hospital Pharmacy.]

Affected in part by the success of Amazon’s online marketplace, pharmacy chains have been struggling to find sustainability. The CVS strategy aims to move beyond the “quick fix” aspects of a health clinic, offering treatments for issues like fevers, headaches and infections, and create a primary care space that patrons would return to on a regular basis.

In its filing, MGB officials referenced a January 2025 Health Policy Commission (HPC) report that noted Massachusetts residents are having problems accessing primary care. At the same time, nearly half of the commonwealth’s office-based primary care physicians are at least 55, and only 14% of new physicians are choosing to enter primary care.

“MGB recognizes that this crisis in primary care has far-reaching adverse effects for patient care and accordingly is pursuing a number of initiatives to make primary care a more attractive career choice and to improve access to primary care for its patients,” the health system noted. “Built around a scalable Advanced Practice Provider (APP)-led model, MinuteClinic Primary Care will improve access to comprehensive primary care by adding new sites of care and expanding access during evenings and weekends, offering convenient options for patients who might otherwise delay or forgo care. This initiative supports the Commonwealth’s urgent goal of strengthening access to primary care amid a shrinking physician pipeline.”

As part of the deal, MinuteClinic Primary Care will join MGB’s ACO as an affiliated provider organization.

“This affiliation enables MinuteClinic Primary Care’s APP-led model to align with MGB’s high standards for quality and patient trust, while also providing a demonstration of the efficacy of a scalable, advanced-practice-led care model,” MGB officials said in the filing. “Through this relationship, MinuteClinic Primary Care also gains access to MGB’s value-based payer contracts and population health management (PHM) infrastructure, enabling a cost-effective path to operationalizing care management and value-based strategies without duplicating existing systems.”

Both parties anticipate that the network will support roughly 800 APPs, each covering care for about 1,500 patients, improving access to care for some 120,000 patients across the commonwealth.