Last week CVS Health completed their acquisition of Aetna. You know CVS through their pharmacy stores- and Aetna through their health insurance businesses (in AZ that includes Mercy Care and Mercy Maricopa Integrated Care).
Aetna will be a stand-alone unit within CVS and led by members of its current management team. It’s essentially a vertical integration- as it combines Aetna (primarily a health care insurer) with CVS (primarily a retailer).
The US Justice Department required Aetna to divest its Medicare prescription drug business to WellCare Health Plans before approving the merger.
One of the goals of the merger is to integrate Aetna’s medical information and analytics into CVS Health’s pharmacy data- creating a new model of care delivery.
The new company says they’ll be introducing new programs to target more efficient management of chronic disease with services focusing on self-management for patients with chronic conditions, expansion of chronic care management services at MinuteClinic, nutritional and behavioral counseling and benefit navigation support. The plan includes expanded preventive health screenings to better manage high cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes.
A major focus will be on better managing five chronic conditions: diabetes, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, asthma and behavioral health.
There are some academics and other analysts that suggest the merger is anticompetitive and won’t result in better care or outcomes- but it looks to me like it has a pretty good chance of improving outcomes- especially if they focus on better management of chronic medical conditions combined with more convenient and numerous service sites.
CVS has been moving their mission from its traditional pharmacy business model for some time- bringing it more in line with providing health care and other services. Several years ago- as this new model was emerging, CVS decided to stop selling cigarettes etc. as they rightly saw those sales as inconsistent with that of a business focusing on improving health outcomes.
