As Health Care Changes, Insurers, Hospitals and Drugstores Team Up

As Health Care Changes, Insurers, Hospitals and Drugstores Team Up
By combining with Aetna, which covers about 22 million people, CVS would be able to direct members to its own mail-order
and pharmacy business and to its walk-in clinics, located in its drugstores, for much of their care.
Anthem, which recently announced that it plans to start its own pharmacy benefit manager, estimated it could
save $4 billion a year, the bulk of which it said would result in lower drug costs for customers.
The big insurer, which acquired a chain of outpatient surgery centers earlier this year, has a wide array of profitable
health care businesses like its own pharmacy benefit manager and various consulting arms through its Optum unit.
An in-house pharmacy benefit manager could direct customers to certain drugs
because its manufacturer offers hefty rebates even if the medicine is more expensive or does not work as well as a competitor’s.
CVS Health, which started as a drugstore chain, operates a large pharmacy benefit manager as well as walk-in clinics in its drugstores.