At the same time I am processing the move by CVS to stop selling tobacco products in their over 7,600 retailsstores, making a commitment to being more retail healthcare, rather than just a corner drugstore—I am also wrapping my head around potential strategy and opportunities for the Cashtie API which opens up the ability for mobile developers to accept cash payments at CVS retail locations.
I think CVS’s commitment to their healthcare mission, by itself is a pretty significant move towards reinventing themselves, but adding to the news, the White House just announced that CVS was onboard to work with standardizing patient prescription information as part of the Blue Button initiative, which works to give citizens control over their healthcare data—further defining CVS as more than just a corner drugstore.
As the healthcare industry continues its adoption of APIs, smart-phone adoption increase, the quantified-self movement expands, and retail drugstores like CVS look to increase their relevance, I think we will see an entirely new retail healthcare landscape emerge. When you take this seismic healthcare shift and pair up with powerful API resources like the Cashtie API, which have the potential to allow the underbanked who have recently gained access to healthcare, pay their premiums with cash—we wiill see a serious shift in how healthcare is delivered, and consumed.
I am seeing APIs emerge in various aspects of the healthcare industry ranging from the next generation of electronic healthcare records (EHR) to accessing vital health insurance information, but I think the role APIs will play in this emerging retail healthcare space will be pretty significant in changing how we consume, pay for and interact with our healthcare. Any company that serves the healthcare industry that doesn’t have an API, will not stay relevant in this new API driven healthcare economy.
