CVS-Aetna Merger Strategy Comes into Focus

On the heels of New York's top financial watchdog expressing alarm over the proposed $69 billion merger between CVS and Aetna, the drug store chain's CEO has begun a more public campaign to lay out the company's strategy for achieving $750 million in savings.

During a recent investor meeting with Mizuho Securities, Healthcare Dive reports, CVS Health President and CEO Larry Merlo shared examples of how the merged companies expect to achieve these savings within two years of the deal closing. If the merger goes through, CVS will tap its pharmacists to encourage healthy behaviors among Aetna members who use CVS stores and thereby cut health care costs.

In an interview with CNBC, Merlo said CVS will focus on three pillars: making health care local and simpler, and improving patients' health. About 70 percent of Americans live within 3 miles of a CVS pharmacy, he said, adding that CVS may work with its customers to help them adhere to the care plans in their health records.

Whether CVS is allowed to merge with Aetna is subject to a Department of Justice antitrust review. Various analysts expect the DOJ to approve the merger in the fourth quarter, particularly in light of its recent approval of the Cigna-Scripts merger. One opponent of the merger, Maria Vullo, New York state superintendent, department of financial services, sent a letter to the Connecticut Insurance Department in advance of its Oct. 4 hearing on the matter, complaining that the acquisition would give Aetna unfair competitive advantages, raise drug prices and insurance premiums, and create data-privacy issues. She also voiced concern over the considerable debt load — more than $40 billion — that CVS would take on to finance the deal.