CVS Health to Become Bigger Post-Acute Player with Aetna Pilot Launching in 2023

CVS Health (NYSE: CVS) appears poised to become a bigger player in the post-acute care space moving forward, in a pilot program that highlights ongoing shifts away from facility-based care and into the home.

The company announced last week that it is preparing to launch a post-acute transitions pilot for Aetna members in select geographies in 2023.

Aetna – one of the largest health insurance payers in the U.S. – is a part of CVS Health.

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“We are diversifying our growth portfolio with new health services,” CVS Health President and CEO Karen Lynch said on the company’s first quarter earnings call last Wednesday. “We are expanding our capabilities in home health as we prepare for the 2023 launch.”

While Lynch and other leaders provided few details about the post-acute pilot, the move underscores that some of the nation’s largest insurance companies are making concerted moves to increase at-home care — including by enabling more complex services that in the past have been delivered in nursing centers.

This shift-to-home is also exemplified through the growth of SNF-at-home. These models are being launched by established skilled nursing providers such as PruittHealth, but also by organizations such as Contessa Health, which is part of home health giant Amedisys (Nasdaq: AMED).

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Even more dramatically, UnitedHealth’s Optum arm is acquiring home health provider LHC Group (Nasdaq: LHCG) in a $5.4 billion deal. That deal, announced in March 2022, sends a strong signal that insurers are seeking more control over the post-acute care continuum, with a particular goal of driving more care to the low-cost setting of the home.

During its fourth quarter 2021 earnings call, CVS Health’s leaders flirted with the idea of getting into fee-for-service Medicare home health through acquisitions but on Wednesday, they dropped more clues as to what form its home-based care strategy may take.

CVS Health will look for both home-based care acquisitions and partnerships as the company grows this platform. But the company is not looking to acquire “jumbo-sized” assets as it adds capabilities, CVS executive vice president and CFO Shawn Guertin said.

Lynch hopes that partnering with technology and home-based care players will allow the company to reduce readmissions and facilitate better care for customers. The company also continues to evaluate its portfolio for “non-strategic assets,” she said.

“We are making progress serving our consumers wherever and whenever they receive health care,” Lynch said.

This isn’t the first time CVS Health has looked to expand its home health services.

The company laid out its strategy for the coming years at its 2021 investor day in December, where Lynch said that “now is the time” for the company to capitalize on its role as the leading health solutions company in the United States.

At the time, Guertin indicated that the company was interested in investments that “make sense” to extend the care continuum – particularly to its Medicare population.

CVS already does some kidney care in the home, as well as infusions. Coram – the company’s home infusion platform – cares for 50,000 patients monthly.

“There’s a number of options out there, and we are looking at that too as part of our acquisition strategy,” Lynch said.

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