Some consultants say the CVS and Oak Road Well being deal improves entry to look after medically underserved seniors and advantages an organization that has ventured far past its pharmaceutical roots. Others consider the acquisition will stifle competitors and drive up costs.
CVS Healths plans to accumulate main care supplier Oak Road Well being is getting combined evaluations. Some consultants say the deal improves entry to look after medically underserved seniors and advantages an organization that has ventured far past its pharmaceutical roots. By shopping for Oak Road, which focuses on serving individuals lined by Medicare, CVS is positioning itself to broaden into value-based care, says Jim Fields, accomplice and world head of well being and life sciences on the agency. guide Oliver Wyman. Older People have many care wants and plenty of value-based care plans.
However others consider the acquisition will stifle competitors and drive up costs. Some commentators additionally questioned whether or not this was a wise enterprise deal for CVS Well being: Oak Streets’ web losses fell from $414.6 million in 2021 to $509.7 million in 2022.
CVS Well being introduced its intention to accumulate Oak Road in February 2023, a transaction valued at $10.6 billion. Chicago-based Oak Road operates 169 value-based main hub facilities in 21 states.
Naturally, CVS executives celebrated the deal once they introduced it. The acquisition of Oak Road Well being will broaden our value-based care platform to main care and speed up our long-term development, Karen S. Lynch, president and CEO of CVS Well being, stated on a name. to the outcomes Feb. 8, in response to the transcript. revealed on the CVS Well being web site.
Acquainted terrain
CVS, which had complete income of $332.5 billion in 2022, continues to develop by acquisition to grow to be an American healthcare large. The corporate modified its identify to CVS Well being in 2014, acquired well being insurer Aetna in 2018, and in September 2022 introduced plans to accumulate Signify Well being, a house care firm, for $8 billion. This settlement was reached on the finish of final month.
Including Oak Road to its portfolio will give CVS a circulate of sufferers, says Adam Block, Ph.D., affiliate professor of well being coverage and administration at New York Medical Faculty at Valhalla. Oak Road reported that the corporate’s main care clinics handled 224,000 sufferers in 2022. The acquisition of those main care clinics would give CVS and Aetna the flexibility to assist refer sufferers to community suppliers. , he notes.
CVS is reportedly pursuing one other deal, buying janitorial main care supplier One Medical. As an alternative, Amazon landed the corporate in a $3.9 billion deal, which closed in February 2023.
The Oak Road acquisition places CVS on pretty acquainted floor. The corporate has diversified into the direct provision of healthcare for practically 20 years. The corporate introduced in 2006 that it was shopping for MinuteClinic, which began in 2000 as an impartial enterprise. The corporate’s web site says it now has over 1,000 MinuteClinic areas.
Earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic, CVS executives additionally had formidable plans for his or her in-store HealthHUBs. HealthHUBs present extra providers than MinuteClinic and are geared in direction of persistent illness administration. Reportedly, the corporate’s aim was to have 1,500 HealthHUBs in operation by the top of 2021. In keeping with information agency ScrapeHero, there at the moment are 935 HealthHUB websites in operation. There was no point out of HealthHUB through the February earnings name which included an announcement of the Oak Road acquisition.
As an alternative, Lynch stated the Oak Streets Medicare-focused belongings complement our established care supply belongings, together with our greater than 1,100 retail well being MinuteClinic (areas) in a number of methods.
Eversana, a pharmaceutical market entry consultancy, stated in a current report that the Oak Road acquisition may assist CVS bolster and even change HealthHUBs. A big portion of Aetnas Medicare Benefit membership resides in an Oak Road Well being market, opening the door for seamless community integration, Eversana wrote.
The Oak Road acquisition might also assist CVS appeal to and retain Medicare Benefit members and enhance the star ranking Aetna receives from CMS.
Potential disadvantages
The Oak Road Accord presents potential pitfalls for CVS. A 3rd of Oak Streets income comes from Humana. The rival insurer may minimize Oak Road from its supplier community, Eversana famous.
Moreover, CVS faces the monetary burden of Oak Streets’ poor monetary efficiency, Eversana famous. Oak Road has grown. It opened 40 new well being facilities in 2022, bringing the overall to 169. The corporate stated its income elevated by 51% in 2022, reaching $2.1 billion, however these optimistic outcomes include web losses sharply.
For CVS, the worth paid will probably be justified by the worth it (the acquisition) creates, says Fields at Oliver Wyman.
Some consultants concern the acquisition will crowd out competitors and probably result in a decline within the high quality of care. Additional consolidation of well being care in america might result in poorer outcomes and better prices, says Sara Sirota, MS, coverage analyst on the American Financial Liberties Challenge, an advocacy group and assume tank that requires aggressive enforcement of antitrust laws. The group requested the Federal Commerce Fee to dam the CVS-Oak Road deal.
Anytime you see the combination of extra-large organizations, the affect may very well be potential monopoly energy, Block says. Nonetheless, whereas such acquisitions might enhance costs for sufferers, they may additionally lead to a smoother expertise for sufferers, he says.
He cites examples akin to Kaiser Permanente and UnitedHealth Group, which have had nice success with vertical integration. I believe many different organizations are catching up, Block says.
Social determinants of well being
The acquisition of Oak Road may assist CVS Well being and Aetna deal with the social determinants of well being.
Greater than half of Oak Streets sufferers are in danger for meals, housing or isolation points. On the February earnings name, Michael Pykosz, JD, CEO of Oak Road, stated that by offering holistic, coordinated care, we are able to shut care gaps and act on the social determinants of well being. .
With a lot of its clinics positioned in traditionally underserved communities, fashions akin to Oak Streets provide the chance to fulfill individuals the place they’re, says Jay Bhatt, DO, MPH, MPA, government director of the Deloitte Heart for Well being Options and the Deloitte Well being Fairness Institute.
In a 2022 report by Deloitte, the consultancy wrote: Inequality in entry to care is a significant factor contributing to well being disparities. Traditionally susceptible and underserved populations wrestle to entry care, given job calls for, well being literacy, transportation, medical health insurance protection, and system belief deficits.
In lots of circumstances, sufferers from underserved teams surprise the place can I get the well being care I would like most rapidly, says Bhatt. Shoppers need extra entry factors and fewer friction.
Going ahead, there must be a defragmentation of the ecosystem right into a reassembly of healthcare in new methods, Bhatt says. Major care is key.
One of many challenges will probably be getting extra superior care to the suitable place quick sufficient, Bhatt says. Points additionally stay concerning data sharing and interoperability between main care suppliers and others throughout the well being care continuum. There is a greater threat of lacking one thing, Bhatt says. CVS’s acquisition of Oak Road and different comparable offers will encourage conventional suppliers to seek out methods to ship the comfort and connectivity that fashions like CVS aspire to supply, Fields says.
Susan Ladika, a contract journalist in Tampa, Florida, covers enterprise and well being. She is an everyday contributor to Managed Healthcare Government.
