CVS Health to Split Into Two Public Companies — SkimNews
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- CVS Health will split into two separate companies, reversing decades of deals that combined pharmacy and insurance operations and created one of the country’s largest health care conglomerates.
- The two publicly traded companies will be named CVS Health and CVS Pharmacy, leaving both sides of the separation under the CVS brand.
- Caremark will remain in CVS Health alongside Aetna, the specialty-pharmacy business, primary-care companies and companies providing home visits to older adults.
- CVS Health will keep high-cost specialty drugs from its specialty pharmacy intertwined with one of the country’s largest PBMs and insurers, drawing criticism that companies like CVS profit excessively from prescription-drug dispensing.
Why it matters: The move creates two public companies but does not end CVS’s vertical consolidation: Aetna, Caremark and specialty dispensing remain together under CVS Health. For critics who argue that CVS profits excessively from prescription dispensing, the structure they criticize remains intact inside one company.
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