Your Pharmacy Could Be Your Insurer If CVS Buys Aetna: Report

BRIARCLIFF MANOR, NY — The pharmacy chain CVS Health has agreed to buy Aetna in a $69 billion deal, The Washington Post reported Sunday, citing people familiar with the deal. If the deal is approved by regulators, the merger would bring a large health insurance company and pharmacy provider under one umbrella.

The agreement will likely be announced later on Sunday and is expected to close in the second half of 2018. The Wall Street Journal reports that as part of the deal, CVS plans to use its thousands of pharmacy locations to provide consumers with more local care options.

Portions of CVS pharmacies will be repurposed to become community health centers where customers can ask questions about their health, the companies will announce, according to the report in the Journal.

That could include CVS locations across Putnam and northern Westchester:

• Bedford Hills (1)
• Briarcliff Manor (1)
• Carmel (1)
• Croton On Hudson (1)
• Katonah (1)
• Mahopac (1)
• Mohegan Lake (1)
• Mount Kisco (2)
• Ossining (1)
• Peekskill (2)
• Somers (1)
• Yorktown Heights (1)

Several news reports on the deal note that a big driving factor in the acquisition is potential competition from Amazon as it seeks to enter the pharmacy market. Corporations from all industries are dealing with the threat of Amazon and most recently the e-commerce giant entered the grocery business with its acquisition of Whole Foods.

Patch will update this report.

Photo by Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press