Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/1187010
www.HartfordBusiness.com • November 25, 2019 • Hartford Business Journal 19 TRAVEL & EVENT PLANNERS Host Travel Agency - HIRING - RIDEREVENTS.COM 860.413.9067 SALLY@RIDEREVENTS.COM Independent Travel Agents WE ARE YOUR TRAVEL & EVENT EXPERTS: With over 30 years of experience, let us do the planning for you! PROVIDING PEACE OF MIND: There for you with travel plans in advance, last minute updates or unexpected changes throughout your trip. GOING THE EXTRA MILE: Always going above and beyond, providing you with all the extra benefi ts on your trip or event. for a broader checkup, but visit a HealthHub to monitor their blood- sugar levels, make sure they are getting their prescriptions filled, and discuss dietary and exercise plans. "It's the ability to help manage the wellness of the individual and stay in tune with him or her," he said. Aetna also has a significant pres- ence in CVS stores, Lynch said. For example, knowledge centers are be- ing used to educate seniors about Medicare Advantage offerings dur- ing the current open-enrollment period. That's a major, growing line of business that most health insur- ers are chasing. "That is a big initiative," Lynch said. Gov. Ned Lamont, who recently met with CVS CEO Larry Merlo, said having a HealthHub in Hart- ford will be a big deal. "[Merlo] says we can do 80 per- cent of everything you can do with a primary care physician," Lamont told HBJ. "Even if he is off by a fac- tor of two, that is a big help." He said his administration is look- ing at HealthHubs more broadly. "It's a lot less cost," Lamont said. "Maybe I can work out something with the state-employee plan to funnel them to the low-cost alter- native to the emergency room. It makes sense to me." Competition is brutal CVS plans to have 50 HealthHubs up and running by the end of this year and 650 by the end of 2020, before it reaches its 1,500 goal by 2021. They are being built in cur- rent CVS locations, especially those with MinuteClinics. The expansion comes at a precar- ious time for CVS and other phar- macy companies like Walgreens, which are grappling with a number of headwinds that include lower prices for generic drugs and a decline in reimbursement rates for medications from state and federal government healthcare plans. Walmart and Amazon have be- come tougher drug-store competi- tors as well. Walmart has bulked up its pharmacy business, while Amazon bought online pharmacy PillPack last year. CVS and Walgreens are being squeezed in the front end of the store by Costco and dollar-store chains like Dollar General, which all sell many personal-care products and snacks at lower prices. Drug-store investors are also concerned about the new health- care venture, dubbed Haven, which is a partnership of Amazon, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and banking giant JPMorgan Chase. Haven has pledged to lower health- care costs for the employees of those three companies. Add that all up and it makes sense that CVS would want to focus more on offering actual medical-care services to differentiate itself. Cherny, the Bank of America ana- lyst, said CVS' combination with Aetna gives it a competitive advantage. "Over time, cross selling inte- grated pharmacy-medical offerings in the commercial markets is going to be quite appealing," he said. A CNNMoney report was used in this story. CVS' HealthHubs will have less room for items like magazines, candy and personal-care products and more space for helping people improve their health.