Business · Companies · 6 hrs ago
CVS Health plans to split into two companies by early 2028
CVS Health plans to split into two companies, reversing a strategy that brought several health businesses together.
One company will include CVS’s 9,000 retail pharmacies, mail-order pharmacy and MinuteClinic.
The other will include insurer Aetna, pharmacy benefit manager Caremark and other health businesses, and will provisionally be called CVS Health.
The separation is expected to be completed in early 2028.
CVS says the change will not affect how people shop at its pharmacies or what patients pay for prescriptions.
Critics have said health care consolidation gives companies too much control and can raise costs, while pharmacy benefit managers face calls for reform.
An opinion piece argues the split does not address concerns about pharmacy benefit managers, which negotiate prescription costs with drugmakers.
CVS Health announced it will split into two companies, with the separation expected to be completed in early 2028.
One company, provisionally called CVS Pharmacy, will include CVS’s 9,000 retail pharmacies, mail-order pharmacy and MinuteClinic.
The other, provisionally called CVS Health, will include Aetna, Caremark, a specialty-drug business and two businesses providing primary care and home health assessments to older adults.
The split reverses a strategy that began with CVS’s 2007 merger with Caremark and continued with its 2018 acquisition of Aetna.
CVS CEO David Joyner said the company was turning what he considered one large company into two.
- Who
- CVS Health, led by CEO David Joyner, plans to split into two companies.
- What
- It will separate its retail pharmacy and clinic business from its insurance, pharmacy-benefit management and related businesses.
- When
- The split was announced on Wednesday, November 4, 2026. It is expected to be completed in early 2028.
- Where
- United States.
- Why
- The sources describe the split as a reversal of CVS’s strategy of combining businesses across health care. They do not state one specific reason for the decision.
CVS Health
Consumer advocates and lawmakers critical of health care consolidation
Aspect
CVS Health
CVS plans to divide its business into two companies.
Consumer advocates and lawmakers critical of health care consolidation
Critics have argued that consolidation gives companies excessive control over health care and can raise patients’ costs.
Aspect
CVS Health
CEO David Joyner described the plan as turning one large company into two.
Consumer advocates and lawmakers critical of health care consolidation
Some members of Congress have called for companies in the sector to be broken up.
CVS merged with Caremark, beginning the strategy of combining businesses across health care.
CVS acquired Aetna for $69 billion.
David Joyner became CVS CEO.
CVS announced it would split into two companies.
The separation is expected to be completed.
- Retail business
- 9,000 CVS pharmacies, a mail-order pharmacy and MinuteClinic
- Insurance and related businesses
- Aetna, Caremark, a specialty-drug business and two businesses serving older adults
- Expected completion
- Early 2028
- Aetna acquisition
- $69 billion in 2018
- Caremark merger
- 2007
2 sources
What people are saying
We are basically taking what I believe is a great company and turning it into two
a complete shock
perhaps the outlook for an independent retail pharmacy (still with significant scale and leverage on its own) is stronger now than before