Blame the pickleball paddles.
Over the past year, CVS has made a concerted push to court seniors to enroll in its Aetna Medicare programs by offering free sports equipment, fishing rods, and other enticements. It worked maybe a little too well for CVS, as the surge in new customers backfired when the medical costs for those sporty seniors spiraled well beyond the company’s expectations.
It was an example of how the big idea behind the unprecedented merger of a retail pharmacy chain with a health insurance company did not quite pan out as expected. Now, after the Woonsocket, R.I.-based health care giant had to again reduce its profit outlook and with its stock taking a pummeling on Wall Street, CVS is reportedly considering breaking itself into two smaller companies to keep its critics at bay.
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