CVS agrees to buy Aetna in $69 billion deal that could shake up health-care industry - Sensationalist Headlines

[quote]Pharmacy giant CVS Health has agreed to buy Aetna in a $69 billion blockbuster acquisition that could rein in health care costs and transform its 9,700 pharmacy storefronts into community medical hubs for primary care and basic procedures, people familiar with the deal said Sunday. The pharmacy chain agreed to buy Aetna for about $207 per share or $69 billion. If approved by regulators, the mega-merger would create a giant health care company, allowing CVS to provide a broad range of health services to Aetna’s 22 million medical members at its nationwide network of pharmacies and walk-in clinics, and further decrease the drug store titan's reliance on the retail sales that have faced increasing competition.[/quote] [url]https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/12/03/cvs-agrees-to-buy-aetna-in-69-billion-deal-that-could-shake-up-health-care-industry/?tidr=a_breakingnews&hpid=hp_no-name_no-name%3Apage%2Fbreaking-news-bar[/url]

I didn't know CVS had such money

Pocket change tbh

Has there been a case where a pharmacy bought a healthcare provider before? Usually its the other way around, the pharmacy being bought by the insurance companies

What will this mean anyways? I should start using CVS more tbh its pretty nice

[QUOTE=J!NX;52943895]What will this mean anyways? I should start using CVS more tbh its pretty nice[/QUOTE] Please don't. Family pharmacies like mine are becoming extinct because of the CVS factories. You should see the way they treat their workers.

[QUOTE=Adelle Zhu;52943943]Please don't. Family pharmacies like mine are becoming extinct because of the CVS factories. You should see the way they treat their workers.[/QUOTE] People should use what ever store they like

Does this mean my copay receipts will now be 10 feet long and full of coupons for random healthcare procedures?

[QUOTE=Adelle Zhu;52943943]Please don't. Family pharmacies like mine are becoming extinct because of the CVS factories. You should see the way they treat their workers.[/QUOTE] I'm not familiar with the inner workings of CVS, but my local CVS pharmacy is pretty nice. I do wonder how this will shake things up in the future though.

[QUOTE=Solo Wing;52944046]I'm not familiar with the inner workings of CVS, but my local CVS pharmacy is pretty nice. I do wonder how this will shake things up in the future though.[/QUOTE] It's gonna make the industry greedier. Pharmacy Benefit Managers, the ultimate middleman, will continue to rape insurance providers which will be passed on to premium payers. The main problem is the power they have. This will only make the monopolization worse. We just tried to renegotiate our contract with CVS Caremark (their insurance division) and they make the process incredibly hard on purpose so you just give up and can't accept the insurance at your store anymore. Obviously they gain their customers back. They were asking us questions like proving that the compunds we make are actually useful. We were asked to provide studies on each compound as if we had access to that information. That's like asking a pharmacist if Viagra is a useful drug. The whole thing makes me sick. Watching my parents struggle with this shit because CVS can't keep their hands off anything. [editline]3rd December 2017[/editline] I might write to a newspaper with my father. On the side, he consults for companies looking to save on insurance. He's told me sickening stories of the greed that goes on. American healthcare, much like everything else, has been bastardized by greed. There are middlemen everywhere trying to make a quick buck and no one regulates them. They're free to do whatever they want and it only hurts people.

Fucking hell, I have Aetna

My local cvs is weird, or maybe not? Only about half of the building caters towards health related products, with a pharmacy in the back with soulless employees and long lines of people not sure how to answer the employees questions. The rest of the store is just filled with random shit like candy, alcohol, clothing, you name it. I have Aetna through my work, so I wonder how this affects me

[QUOTE=Adelle Zhu;52943943]Please don't. Family pharmacies like mine are becoming extinct because of the CVS factories. You should see the way they treat their workers.[/QUOTE] Provide a better service then. Most of us are going to go where we feel we're getting the best deal, and if that's CVS, it's CVS. If that's a Rite-Aid, it's a Rite-Aid. If it's the Walmart, or a family pharmacy, or the doctor's office itself, then that's where we go. My family gets its scrips filled at the walmart pharmacy.

[QUOTE=TestECull;52944952]Provide a better service then. Most of us are going to go where we feel we're getting the best deal, and if that's CVS, it's CVS. If that's a Rite-Aid, it's a Rite-Aid. If it's the Walmart, or a family pharmacy, or the doctor's office itself, then that's where we go. My family gets its scrips filled at the walmart pharmacy.[/QUOTE] I don't really understand the bad responses to posts like yours and others talking about where they have to get their meds. It's not like some varied wonderland and it's often not a choice at all. Where I live, we have 2 pharmacies in the whole city, a CVS and a Walgreens, no others, no family pharmacies, and I've honestly never even heard of Aetna. My doctor will send to one of them and that's it, the stuff that I actually need to live will be gotten where I can get it. I don't get this attitude as if it's choosing from where you will eat today from a huge list of possibilities or something.

[QUOTE=TestECull;52944952]Provide a better service then. Most of us are going to go where we feel we're getting the best deal, and if that's CVS, it's CVS. If that's a Rite-Aid, it's a Rite-Aid. If it's the Walmart, or a family pharmacy, or the doctor's office itself, then that's where we go. My family gets its scrips filled at the walmart pharmacy.[/QUOTE] Did you read his post? It isn't because Walmart or CVS provide a better service. It's because they provide a cheaper service. These huge companies strong arm the small folk out and undercut them to the price where it simply isn't viable for them to compete. Despite what most people claim to believe and say they don't give a shit about the service. They give a shit about the price. I deal with these people all day long, and I can't really blame them. Most people in the US are working 40 hours a week and are still making a grand or even less a month. They can't afford to pick and choose, and most companies like it this way.

[QUOTE=Adelle Zhu;52943943]Please don't. Family pharmacies like mine are becoming extinct because of the CVS factories. You should see the way they treat their workers.[/QUOTE] Think about the street vendor pharmacies? My dude, who I call walgreens, has been struggling since they got this new doctor that happens to be a script vending machine.

[QUOTE=Ithon;52943760]I didn't know CVS had such money[/QUOTE] [URL="http://investors.cvshealth.com/~/media/Files/C/CVS-IR-v3/AET transaction/CVS-Aetna Investor Presentation.pdf"]Slide deck[/URL] from CVS (see page 21) says that they're financing this with $4.1B in cash on hand, and $44.8B in new debt, with the rest made up by shares issued to current AET shareholders.

[QUOTE=TestECull;52944952]Provide a better service then. Most of us are going to go where we feel we're getting the best deal, and if that's CVS, it's CVS. If that's a Rite-Aid, it's a Rite-Aid. If it's the Walmart, or a family pharmacy, or the doctor's office itself, then that's where we go. My family gets its scrips filled at the walmart pharmacy.[/QUOTE] It's not a problem of service. We provide more services and accept more insurances than CVS does. They come into neighborhoods, buy a building, and come into your store saying "Sign this buyout or we'll just force you out." This already happened to us in two neighborhoods.

[QUOTE=TestECull;52944952]Provide a better service then. Most of us are going to go where we feel we're getting the best deal, and if that's CVS, it's CVS. If that's a Rite-Aid, it's a Rite-Aid. If it's the Walmart, or a family pharmacy, or the doctor's office itself, then that's where we go. My family gets its scrips filled at the walmart pharmacy.[/QUOTE] Did you not read the other post they made that explains why that's not the solution?

[QUOTE=Adelle Zhu;52943943]Please don't. Family pharmacies like mine are becoming extinct because of the CVS factories. You should see the way they treat their workers.[/QUOTE] I wouldn't have a problem with local pharmacies if they didn't operate on banking hours. The big chains are at least open reasonably late. [editline]4th December 2017[/editline] Local pharmacies are getting killed by mail order too. I'm relatively healthy, so the few drugs I do take are intermittent, and not worth having shipped because I want them right away. Any sort of long term prescription can be mailed to you though, and that's cheaper for insurance companies. There's a huge push to get people to sign up for getting stuff through the mail because of that.

CVS is by far the most expensive chain general store/pharmacy I can think of. Maybe if they didn't do shit like charge ridiculous markup on everything they'd get more business.

[QUOTE=Kylel999;52946581]CVS is by far the most expensive chain general store/pharmacy I can think of. Maybe if they didn't do shit like charge ridiculous markup on everything they'd get more business.[/QUOTE] Their prices are based on Average Wholesale Price of the drug which is an arbitrary number that is determined by the manufacturer. But that's not where they make their real money. The real source of income for them is the premiums and kickbacks from Caremark, their insurance division. [editline]4th December 2017[/editline] A drug that costs $18.00 a bottle for 30 tablets could have an Average Wholesale Price of $200. It's total nonsense but that's what their policy is.

[QUOTE=Adelle Zhu;52946646] A drug that costs $18.00 a bottle for 30 tablets could have an Average Wholesale Price of $200. It's total nonsense but that's what their policy is.[/QUOTE] Healthcare's meant to stop people bleeding, for fuck's sake.

[QUOTE=Chris Morris;52947877]Healthcare's meant to stop people bleeding, for fuck's sake.[/QUOTE] Not in America it's not.

[QUOTE=Kylel999;52946581]CVS is by far the most expensive chain general store/pharmacy I can think of. Maybe if they didn't do shit like charge ridiculous markup on everything they'd get more business.[/QUOTE] All general store type setups are overly expensive but CVS has the best prices on generic prescription drugs (and it's inside a Target) and that's why I always go there.

Well, I just switched off an Aetna plan to BCBS, so maybe this will be good for me. Who knows? Less competition in the healthcare space seems like a net negative though.

[QUOTE=Propane Addict;52948442]All general store type setups are overly expensive but CVS has the best prices on generic prescription drugs (and it's inside a Target) and that's why I always go there.[/QUOTE] My prescriptions tend to cost 3-5x as much at my local CVS. The $7 script I get filled at Walmart of Amoxicillin costs $30 at CVS. Keep in mind I'm completely uninsured. There are also no family pharmacies that I know of around here, but there's like a Walgreens every other block.