In a Tuesday examine with CNBC’s Jim Cramer, CVS CEO Karen Lynch discussed her company’s expansion into primary care, saying it is a cornerstone of the fellowship’s health services.
In 2023, CVS closed two multibillion-dollar deals, acquiring home health service Signify and Oak Street Health, which pinpoints on providing primary care for seniors. Like drugstore peer Walgreens, CVS has spent the last several years ripening into a larger, more multi-faceted health-care company.
“Think about the primary care as the quarterback to your healthiness care,” Lynch said, adding that in-home care can be especially helpful for patients. “When we’re in the home, we get to bring to light up the refrigerator and see if you’re eating well. We get to look and see if there’s rugs that you might trip on.”
Lynch also touched on other point of views of CVS’s services such as Caremark, its subsidiary that manages prescription drug benefits for health insurers. She said that middle of Caremark, CVS is trying to drive competition and lower costs for consumers.
The company is also making changes to its retail arm. According to Lynch, CVS outlines to close 900 stores as well as remove self-checkout from several locations.
“We really looked at density, and we phrased, sometimes there was a store on one corner and a store on another corner,” Lynch said. “We continue to evaluate our store closures, but we alleviate have total access to care – 85% of Americans are within a ten-mile radius of a CVS.”
