CVS Health Will Spend Up to $25 Billion on Provider M&A

  • Dec 17, 2021

    At the firm’s annual investor conference, CVS Health Corp. executives promoted closer vertical integration and promised to move even further into care provision. CVS, which acquired Aetna in 2018, emphasized virtual care and its retail HealthHUB clinics in recent months, and it has indicated it has a strong interest in acquiring providers, particularly in primary care.

    Other large carriers have made similar moves in recent years. UnitedHealth Group owns both the U.S.’s largest health insurer, UnitedHealthcare, and a growing provider arm, OptumCare. Humana Inc. has moved to acquire in-home and primary care providers. Meanwhile, CVS’s largest retail pharmacy competitor, Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc., is purchasing clinics with the goal of becoming a major primary and urgent care provider. According to CVS Health CEO Karen Lynch, the firm’s position astride all three businesses — retail, care delivery and benefits management — is why it will perform better than its rivals.

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  • Peter Johnson

    Peter has worked as a journalist since 2011 and has covered health care since 2020. At AIS Health, Peter covers trends in finance, business and policy that affect the health insurance and pharma sectors. For Health Plan Weekly, he covers all aspects of the U.S. health insurance sector, including employer-sponsored insurance, Medicaid managed care, Medicare Advantage and the Affordable Care Act individual marketplaces. In Radar on Drug Benefits, Peter covers the operations of (and conflicts between) pharmacy benefit managers and pharmaceutical manufacturers, with a particular focus on pricing dynamics and market access. Before joining AIS Health, Peter covered transportation, public safety and local government for various outlets in Seattle, his hometown and current place of residence. He graduated with a B.A. from Colby College.

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