CVS Makes Its Pitch for the Future of Health Care
The pharmacy giant’s ambitious plan to roll out 1,500 stores with greatly expanded services is just what the industry needs.
Coming to a CVS near you, a bunch of new health services.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
Shares of CVS Health Inc. have been battered in recent months along with other health-care companies amid stepped-up scrutiny of the industry’s pricing practices and calls from lawmakers and the Trump administration to overhaul the current complicated and costly U.S. health system. CVS also has had the added task of integrating Aetna Inc., the insurer it bought for $69 billion in November as part of an ambitious plan to transform itself from a pharmacy giant into a more complete provider of health-care services.
It was against this backdrop, and with CVS’s shares down 31% since completing the Aetna deal, that the company held its much-anticipated investor day Tuesday. It marked the first comprehensive update of CVS post-merger, and was a chance for management to convince shareholders that the combined company was up to the challenges ahead and moving in the right direction. Based on the stock’s initial positive reaction, investors seem to have liked what they heard. That upbeat vibe isn’t misplaced.