With its deals totaling more than $18 billion for Oak Street Health and Signify Health, CVS is positioning itself to serve Medicare Advantage patients and the coming shift to value-based care, CEO Karen Lynch said in a March 8 Fortune podcast.
"We have the premier, payer-agnostic, value-based care assets to support Medicare, bar none in the country," she said. "And our goal will be to improve health, improve health outcomes, improve quality, improve access and convenience."
Ms. Lynch told Fortune the company hopes to "provide primary care for all customers," with an initial focus on Medicare Advantage: "That's the largest population, has the highest cost, has the most chronic conditions. We feel like we can have a huge impact on improving overall health outcomes in that population."
She also said both Signify and Oak Street have "very strong technology stacks" and that "the future of healthcare is technology."
She explained how Signify Health works: "They are in 50 states — they go into the home and they basically do assessments of your overall health, and then they reconnect you to the care that you need. So imagine sitting across the table and interacting with someone that can help you understand your blood pressure and talk more about it. They can actually open up a refrigerator door and see what's in there, what kind of food are you eating."
Thirty percent of Signify's patients don't have a primary care provider or use the one they have, Ms. Lynch said, giving the company an opportunity to connect them to Oak Street Health, which focuses on seniors. Signify's home health workers can also collaborate with CVS pharmacists to make sure patients are on the appropriate medications.
CVS may put Oak Street clinics in its retail stores — or at least be located nearby — so patients have "wraparound services" like pharmacies and MinuteClinic locations (for low acuity, urgent needs) all in one place, she said.
Asked about competition with Walgreens and Amazon, Ms. Lynch told the podcast's hosts: "I have the continuum of healthcare. I have 100 million people that I interact with through my insurance divisions, I have 5 million people that walk into my store. So I'm touching a third of America already."
"We know we're in a good position and a strong position," she added. "I'm confident in our strategy and our ability to deliver what consumers need and want for their healthcare."