CVS’s $68 Billion Bid to Bring One-Stop Shopping to Health Care

Most companies pursuing an acquisition have predictable goals in mind—boosting market share, perhaps, or diversifying earnings. But drugstore operator CVS Health Corp. has somewhat grander ambitions for its $67.5 billion purchase of health insurer Aetna Inc.: changing the way Americans go to the doctor. The deal would create a behemoth that would try to shift some of Aetna customers’ care away from doctors and hospitals and into thousands of CVS stores. “Think of these stores as a hub of a new way of accessing health-care services across America,” says CVS Chief Executive Officer Larry Merlo. “We’re bringing health care to where people live and work.”

The buyout would combine the largest U.S. drugstore chain with the third-biggest health insurer. CVS also manages drug benefits plans for thousands of employers and insurers, a business that could help steer some of Aetna’s 22 million customers to CVS pharmacy counters when they fill a prescription. Already, CVS has 1,100 MinuteClinics in its pharmacies, where nurse practitioners and physician assistants provide routine care such as flu shots or wrapping sprained ankles. It’s also trying out hearing and vision centers in a handful of locations. If the merger goes through, CVS plans to build mini-health centers in many more of its 9,700 stores, turning them into places where Aetna members—and customers of rival insurers—get convenient low-level care for ailments and chronic diseases. And having a closer tie to where customers are treated could help Aetna better manage their ailments earlier, more efficiently—and less expensively.