CVS Health’s top executive said its stores are
focused on offering “80% of what a primary care physician can treat” as it
rolls out its new HealthHub format and “zero” and “low copays” for certain
Aetna health plan members using CVS services.
Speaking at the JPMorgan Chase Healthcare conference
Tuesday, CVS chief executive Larry Merlo said the company remains on track to
have 1,500 HealthHUBs operating by the end of 2021. This comes after the first
50 HealthHubs opened last year in four markets: Houston, Atlanta, Tampa and the
market that includes Philadelphia and southern New Jersey.
“We are confident we are on the right path to
creating the most consumer-centric healthcare company,” Merlo told JPMorgan
analyst Lisa Gill in an interview webcast from the bank’s annual healthcare
meeting in San Francisco. “We have completed a tremendous amount of work over
the last 13 months.”
CVS in December of 2018 closed on its
acquisition of Aetna, the nation’s third-largest health insurer with more than
20 million customers. As a larger healthcare company that is benefitting from
Aetna health plan members, CVS is dedicating more than 20% of its stores to health
services that include new durable medical equipment, supplies and various new
product and service combinations.
CVS executives say the HealthHubs will tend to
be rolled out where there are a large concentration of Aetna members. CVS is
rolling out new health plans this year that feature “zero” and “low copayments”
for Aetna members who use CVS HealthHubs and the drugstore services, CVS
executives on the JPMorgan panel with Merlo said Tuesday.
Though not all of CVS’ more than 9,800 retail
locations will convert to HealthHub locations, Merlo said CVS is adding new
healthcare services and new personal care items at all of its stores as well as
additional services at its MinuteClinics.
The move to add new healthcare services comes
as rival retailers in the healthcare space like Walgreens Boots Alliance and
Walmart look to fill the emptying space in their brick and mortar stores in the
face of changing consumer shopping habits driven by online retail giant Amazon
and others.
But Merlo told JPMorgan’s Gill “there is a
physical role for bricks and mortar.” As new healthcare services and personal
items have been added to the HealthHubs, CVS is seeing more foot traffic and
more purchases. “We see the HealthHubs has an evolution of the drugstore,”
Merlo said. “We talk about the need to make healthcare local.”
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