CVS Health

CVS Health Corp. is the largest U.S. pharmacy company and one of the nation’s largest health services providers. Its four business segments — Pharmacy Services, Retail/LTC, Health Care Benefits and Corporate/Other — encompass more than 9,900 retail drugstores (CVS Pharmacy), 1,100 walk-in medical clinics (MinuteClinic), a pharmacy benefits manager (CVS Caremark) with 105 million PBM plan members, specialty pharmacy services, a long-term care pharmacy business (Omnicare) serving more than 1 million patients annually and a health insurance unit (Aetna) serving 34 million people via health coverage products and related services, including Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D prescription drug plans.

CVS Health got its start in retailing. Founded in Lowell, Mass., in 1963 as Consumer Value Stores, a health and beauty products retailer, CVS branched into pharmacy in 1967 and then was sold to Melville Corp. in 1969, where as CVS/pharmacy it grew into one of the biggest U.S. drugstore chains. CVS was spun off from Melville in 1996 to form CVS Corp. The company delved deeper into health care in 2006 with the acquisition of retail health clinic chain MinuteClinic and in 2007 by merging with PBM Caremark Rx in a $26.5 billion deal to form CVS Caremark. The company acquired Longs Drugs (retail drug chain) in 2008, Coram (specialty infusion services) in 2014, Omnicare (long-term care pharmacy services) in 2015 and Target Corp.’s pharmacy business in 2015. CVS changed its name to CVS Health in 2014 and completed its transformation into a healthcare-focused company in 2018 with its $70 billion acquisition of health insurer Aetna.

Key Data: CVS Health

Headquarters: Woonsocket, R.I.

Retail Banners: CVS Pharmacy, MinuteClinic

2020 Retail Segment Sales: $91.2 billion (total company sales $141.9 billion)

2020 Store Locations: 9,962

CEO: Karen Lynch

Source: IGD