CVS Health To Escalate Physician Acquisitions In Primary Care Strategy

CVS Health said it will be acquiring more physician practices and clinics as it expands its diversified strategy to grow its primary care business.

CVS, which is already known for its MinuteClinics staffed by nurse practitioners, Thursday said it will be broadening its strategy into a “nationally-scaled next generation primary care model.” This will include more “physician-led primary care centers with integrated virtual and home assets,” Dr. Alan Lotvin, CVS Health’s Executive Vice President & President, Pharmacy Services, said during the company’s investor day event.

CVS has already been working on an enhanced version of its HealthHUB locations which dedicate more than 20% of the store to health services that include new durable medical equipment, supplies and various new product and service combinations. CVS is also adding thousands of new personal care items as well as additional services at its MinuteClinics in the health hub stores.

The moves come as CVS rivals Walgreens Boots Alliance and Walmart push deeper into healthcare services, expanding available items in their stores and adding primary care services to their stores. Walgreens recently invested another $5.2 billion in VillageMD to escalate the expansion of doctor-staffed clinics across the U.S. under a new “Walgreens Health” business.

But CVS executives Thursday said its strategy will also work to integrate these new primary care services into its health insurance and pharmacy benefit plans. Unlike Walgreens or Walmart, CVS owns one of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefit managers in Caremark and owns Aetna, the nation’s third-largest health insurer with more than 20 million health plan members.

CVS’ primary care will be “going from an episodic approach to longitudinal care . . . everything you would see in a doctor’s offices,” Lotvin said. Eventually, CVS will be adding more specialty services, he added.

Given the size of CVS and the assets it already has CVS also expects to be able to attract more primary care providers to its businesses. Lotvin said CVS is an “employer of choice” for physicians, advanced practice nurses and physician assistants who are graduating in record numbers.