Max Nisen, Columnist

CVS Feels the Pain Before the Potential Gain

Integrating Aetna is going to take time, especially as it faces other pressures.

February 20, 2019 at 2:34 PM UTC

Max Nisen is a healthcare analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. He previously wrote for Bloomberg Opinion, Quartz and Business Insider.

Those headwinds, they are a-blowin'.
Photographer: Christopher Dilts/Bloomberg

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

This article is for subscribers only.

It turns out that integrating a giant health insurer and pioneering a business model isn’t a cakewalk. On Wednesday, CVS Health Inc. released its first full-year guidance since closing its $68 billion deal for Aetna Inc. in November. The firm’s earnings-per-share forecast came in below Wall Street’s lowest estimates.

The pharmacy giant outlined pricing headwinds at a January conference that it said could weigh on earnings, and it looks as if they’re blowing hard. In its fourth-quarter earnings release, CVS said that these issues would have a disproportionate impact in 2019, implying that they’ll fade to some extent.