The CVS-Aetna merger is still the one to watch in 2018

Lots of mergers have been announced lately, but there’s still one transformative merger that will define and reshape the U.S. health care market in 2018: the CVS/Aetna $69 billion deal announced last December. CVS is best known for its 9700 retail pharmacies and 1100 walk-in clinics, but its most significant profit driver is its pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) enterprise — a middleman between pharmaceutical manufacturers and dispensers like drugstores. The company generated $177.5 billion in net revenue in 2016. With its purchase of Aetna, another bold company and the nation’s third-largest health plan, CVS upended uncomfortable business incentives built into its business model. In theory, at least, the CVS PBM has new incentive to bring down drug prices and push for the most efficacious — not necessary the most expensive — treatment choices, to achieve more competitive insurance premiums. They can also favor common-sense preventive and primary care through convenience clinics. In other words, once the post-merger business model better aligns with the company’s mission. Continue reading ... Your patients are rating you online: How to respond. Manage your online reputation: A social media guide. Find out how.
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Policy Hospital-Based Medicine Public Health & Source Type: blogs