The Chief of CVS Health Wants to Be Part of People’s ‘Everyday Life’
Here’s the deal. CVS Health is trying to break out of the hospital market and into your doctor’s office. To do this, they’re turning their entire pharmacy into your local pharmacy.
They plan to expand into more than just pharmacy-and-doctor space eventually — they’re aiming to create the equivalent of a chain of retail-only pharmacies, with drugstores and retail pharmacies linked only by software.
These retail pharmacies will be part of CVS Health, a company best known for doing some very good things for you, namely improving your health with the help of a new pharmacy network called Pharmacy Benefit Management. This includes health savings accounts, prescription drug cost transparency, and more.
The plan to expand into retail pharmacy space started to form a few years ago when CVS decided to split its pharmacy from the medical portion of the business. CVS Health now runs a small pharmacy, which is part of a huge chain called Optum.
But at the same time, CVS has decided not to expand the medical side of its business that sells drugs, devices and medical tests on your behalf. CVS Health is attempting to sell these products directly to consumers through prescription drug plans.
In the short term, that’s a good strategy. But the long-term effect of CVS’s plan is that it will destroy the market for doctors’ offices and other health clinics in rural areas, as they’re left with fewer patients as they have fewer doctors.
At the same time, CVS will also destroy the doctors and clinics that depend on prescription drugs to stay afloat, forcing them out of business. And those that rely on prescription drugs will be left with limited insurance access.
“We’re going to try to get it done. We’re really focused on making it happen. We’re on top of our game,” Chief Executive Officer Larry Merlo told Business Insider, regarding the future of CVS Health.
He adds that the company is doing its research – which is an expensive one – but that they intend to move forward with their plans:
“We’re definitely at the point right now where we are in the research phase where we’re going to get it right, and we�
