CVS Acquiring Primary Care Provider Oak Street for $10.5 Billion

CVS is close to an agreement to acquire Oak Street Health for about $10.5 billion including debt, a deal that would rapidly expand the big healthcare company’s footprint of primary-care doctors with a large network of senior-focused clinics, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The companies are discussing a price of about $39 a share, the people said. The deal, if it goes through, could be announced as soon as this week, they said. CVS is scheduled to report earnings on Wednesday.

The agreement would come on the heels of CVS’s $8 billion agreement to acquire home-care provider Signify Health, the two acquisitions would push CVS, the parent of its namesake pharmacies as well as the huge Aetna health-insurance operation and a pharmacy-benefit manager, far deeper into the direct provision of healthcare.

CVS Chief Executive Karen Lynch had signaled that primary care and home-based care are key growth areas for the company.

Oak Street, which has more than 160 centers across 21 states, focuses on the care of patients enrolled in Medicare.

Source: Wall Street Journal