CVS Health is perhaps best known for two things. First, there are the comically long receipts that have inspired hundreds of internet memes. And then there’s the ubiquitous presence of its stores. If it seems like there’s a CVS pharmacy on every other block, that’s because the company operates 9,000 stores nationwide, including nearly 500 across Massachusetts.
But CVS has become much more than a pharmacy colossus. The company, based in Woonsocket, R.I., has quietly built a conglomerate that deeply influences every part of health care, from insurance and drug pricing to primary care and home medical visits. CVS’s goal is no less than to consolidate the country’s notoriously fragmented health care system into a business that makes lots of money and significantly improves patients’ lives.
“Wherever [consumers] turn, however they turn, CVS Health will be there,” CEO Karen Lynch told analysts last month during the company’s annual Investor Day.