Both CVS Health (NYSE: CVS) and Walgreens Boots Alliance (Nasdaq: WBA) are making big bets on health care services, including services provided in the home. To make headway, each company is also banking on its reputation with health care consumers across the country.
CVS Health has CVS Healthspire, and Walgreens has its U.S. Healthcare segment. The company’s top leaders laid out their plans for those business divisions at the annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference Monday.
Specifically, Walgreens new CEO, Tim Wentworth, discussed the U.S. Healthcare segment on the record for one of the first times, and expressed optimism over the synergistic opportunities it can provide.
“There are synergies,” Wentworth said. “When you look at who pays the bills – ultimately, you need to take care of patients, whatever you’re doing – but for me, versioning those assets around a health system, versus a Medicare Advantage plan, versus a large commercial insurer, you would take different aspects [of each].”
Walgreens owns the health-at-home solutions platform CareCentrix, and also has invested over $6 billion into the primary care provider VillageMD.
CVS Health, meanwhile, has the home-based platform Signify Health under its belt, as well as the primary care provider Oak Street Health.
“We’ve been meeting with payers [around], ‘What else could our platform be doing for you?’” Wentworth continued. “And we’ve got ideas, so stay tuned.”
As for further acquisitions in the home in the near-term future, that’s likely not in the cards for Walgreens. It is not “cash rich” enough right now, Wentworth said.
CVS Health, on the other hand, has teased future home-based care acquisitions in the past.
“We said we wanted to drive for primary care, drive in the home and drive for provider enablement,” CVS Health CEO Karen Lynch also said Monday. “And, really, we have accomplished all those by the acquisition of Signify, by the acquisition of Oak Street.”
Lynch mentioned strong management teams, strong tech platforms and strong positions in value-based care as parts of the value-add from Signify Health and Oak Street Health.
In terms of bringing those assets together, she said the company is “well on its way on that journey.”
She, like Wentworth, also mentioned the synergistic capabilities between those assets, as well as between those assets and other parts of the CVS Health business.
“I’m very excited about the synergistic kind of capabilities together,” Lynch said. “With Signify and Oak, with our pharmacies and Signify, with our care management. We have the opportunity to look at product designs and really accelerate growth. So, there’s a massive opportunity in front of us, and we’re already seeing a fair amount of capability set engagement.”
Lynch mentioned that CVS Health is constantly scanning the market to see if there’s something else that would help the CVS Healthspire segment.
But, first, the goal is to get the segment – as it stands right now – on pace to drive growth for the company.
“Our focus right now is getting these assets to really demonstrate that economic flywheel,” she said. “When customers interact with us on multiple touch points, we see higher persistence of those members, and we see better engagement on enterprise lifetime value. And that’s really the goal.”
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