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CVS eyes major expansion of health clinics with Aetna deal

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NEW YORK: CVS Health Corp is planning to significantly expand health services at its retail pharmacies if it completes a more than $66 billion deal for insurer Aetna Inc, a move that could save more than $1 billion annually, people familiar with the matter said. A key rationale is to use many of the US pharmacy chain’s 9,700 brick-and-mortar outlets to improve access to preventative care and cut back on some emergency room visits for Aetna’s roughly 23 million members with medical coverage, these people said.


The full benefits of the strategy will take several years to realise, requiring billions of dollars in investment to increase the number of CVS clinics and provide the staff and equipment for a wider variety of treatments, the people said.


Those funds would be diverted from planned investments in CVS retail facilities, and not amount to additional expenses, they said.


Deal talks between the companies are still under way, and an agreement could be announced as early as Sunday or Monday, sources familiar with the matter said. It is also possible that a deal is delayed or does not materialise, they said. Health insurers have redoubled their efforts to cut costs in a time of steep prescription drug price rises and requirements to care for even the sickest patients under the Affordable Care Act.


Aetna last year tried to buy rival Humana Inc to gain more leverage over costs, but that transaction, as well as a proposed merger between Anthem Inc and Cigna Corp, was shot down by antitrust regulators.


Many insurers have already been encouraging patients to use urgent care centres, which can provide some of the same services as emergency rooms for as little as a tenth of the cost, said Laurel Stoimenoff, chief executive of the Urgent Care Association of America. The industry has grown to about 8,000 urgent care centres nationwide, as more hospitals, insurers and private operators open such walk-in facilities, Stoimenoff said, with 400 to 500 centres added each year. They may be staffed by doctors and provide relatively advanced care including X-rays. — Reuters


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