As Health Care Changes, Insurers, Hospitals and Drugstores Team Up
By combining with Aetna, which covers about 22 million people, CVS would be able to direct members to its own mail-order
and pharmacy business and to its walk-in clinics, located in its drugstores, for much of their care.
Anthem, which recently announced that it plans to start its own pharmacy benefit manager, estimated it could
save $4 billion a year, the bulk of which it said would result in lower drug costs for customers.
The big insurer, which acquired a chain of outpatient surgery centers earlier this year, has a wide array of profitable
health care businesses like its own pharmacy benefit manager and various consulting arms through its Optum unit.
An in-house pharmacy benefit manager could direct customers to certain drugs
because its manufacturer offers hefty rebates even if the medicine is more expensive or does not work as well as a competitor’s.
CVS Health, which started as a drugstore chain, operates a large pharmacy benefit manager as well as walk-in clinics in its drugstores.