CVS Health Makes Aggressive Primary Care Moves; Are More on the Way?

The year isn’t even half over and already CVS Health has made five significant moves to further entrench its position as a player in primary care. But there’s more to the drug store giant’s strategy as illustrated by some of its recent aggressive investments in hybrid care, home care and chronic care markets, notes a recent CB Insights report.

Since January, CVS Health and CVS Health Ventures have been involved in three funding mega rounds and completed two huge acquisitions to bolster its hybrid care presence, adding hundreds of primary care providers and medical centers to its CVS and Minute Clinic infrastructure.

5 Big Moves by CVS Health in 2023

• In early May, CVS closed on its $10.6 billion purchase of Oak Street Health, a hybrid care provider with about 600 physicians and 169 medical centers in 21 states.
• In March, CVS completed its $8 billion purchase of Signify Health, a health services company with a significant home health business and more than 10,000 providers serving 2.5 million patients in all 50 states.
• In May, CVS Health Ventures was part of a $166 million Series C funding round for Strive Health, which specializes in home and virtual care for patients with chronic kidney disease, including patients who need dialysis.
• CVS helped to lead a $375 million funding round for Monogram Health in January, a specialty provider of in-home and virtual care for polychronic conditions like chronic kidney and renal disease.
• In January, CVS partnered with startup Carbon Health to pilot that company’s primary and urgent care clinic model in CVS stores. CVS Health Ventures also led a $100 million investment to speed Carbon Health’s expansion into new markets.

Health care analysts will be keeping a close eye on how effective CVS is at integrating all of these and its other health care operations during this period of explosive growth.