The landscape for the delivery of health care in the United States is changing, but the traditional care-delivery players are not the change agents. The recent announcement of CVS’s $69 billion deal to acquire Aetna brings an insurer together with a large network of primary care providers: CVS has built more than 1,100 Minute Clinic locations inside its pharmacy stores in 33 states and the District of Columbia. Also, Optum a division of UnitedHealth Group, the largest health insurer in America, has quietly amassed a group of medical providers over 20,000 strong, and on December 6, UnitedHealth announced plans to acquire DaVita Medical Group for the $4.9 billion. DaVita operates nearly 300 medical clinics, 35 urgent-care centers, and six outpatient surgery centers in California, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, and Washington.
What the CVS-Aetna Deal Means for the Delivery of U.S. Health Care
The landscape for the delivery of health care in the United States is changing, but the traditional care-delivery players are not the change agents. Optum a division of UnitedHealth Group, the largest health insurer in America, has quietly amassed a group of medical providers over 20,000 strong. And the recent announcement of CVS’s $69 billion deal to acquire Aetna brings another insurer together with a large network of primary care providers: CVS has built more than 1,000 Minute Clinic locations inside its pharmacy stores in 33 states and the District of Columbia. The ramifications for traditional care providers typically dominated by hospitals is going to be big and may happen fast. We know traditional care in the United States is too expensive. The cost structures of hospitals are a big part of the problem. Therefore, we are seeing disruption in the hospital industry.