Amid Company Turmoil, CVS Health’s New CEO Sees Signify Health As A Bright Spot

Amid several recent developments at CVS Health (NYSE: CVS), Signify Health and Oak Street Health have been bright spots, according to company leaders.

“Signify delivered another strong quarter,” CVS Health President and CEO David Joyner said during the company’s third-quarter earnings call. “Aetna members served by Signify have nearly doubled compared to last year, supported by our ability to utilize touch points across CVS Health. Our enterprise connections also continued to accelerate patient growth at Oak Street.”

In 2023, CVS Health completed the acquisitions of Oak Street Health and Signify Health, to the tune of over $18 billion.

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Signify is a home-focused platform that leverages analytics, technology, health care provider networks and over 10,000 clinicians to power value-based payment programs. The company also offers in-home evaluations as part of its model.

On its end, Oak Street Health is a Chicago-based, senior-focused primary care provider. The company operates over 225 centers across 27 states.

Joyner – who took over as CEO amid turmoil last month – noted that the number of Aetna members enrolled at Oak Street Health has quadrupled since the close of the acquisition. The company’s at-risk membership is also up 32% from the same quarter last year.

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“Through thoughtful benefit design, we continue to introduce Aetna members to high quality providers like Oak Street Health, allowing us to improve member experiences and deliver better health outcomes,” Joyner said.

Joyner also explained the importance of the Oak Street Health model to CVS Health’s overall business.

“Oak Street obviously is managing the costs far better than the rest of our book, so the fact is the model works and it works in underserved markets specifically for the population that’s important to this business,” he said. “The integration between Aetna and Oak Street is improving. We’ve had a 4x increase in the members since the acquisition, proving out the fact that when we put the collective efforts of the business, we can actually see performance.”

Additionally, Joyner laid out CVS Health’s broader plan for Signify Health.

“The goal here is obviously to use Signify as a platform,” he said. “The sophistication and the technology that they’ve invested around logistics and in reaching members in their homes, it is a platform which we can certainly build beyond just the in-home assessment, so that will be the message and the focus of the business, to continue to serve people both in the care delivery setting as well as in the home, and we believe we have the appropriate assets to be able to execute that.”

CVS Health has seen many recent changes and developments over the past few months.

In September, hedge-fund investor Glenview Capital Management reportedly met with CVS Health executives to address financial performance and improve operations.

The company also announced that it would lay off 2,900 workers around this time.

In mid-October, Joyner took over, replacing Lynch.

During the call, Joyner also addressed new leadership appointments at the company.

“Today, we announced two leadership appointments that will help us drive better performance across the enterprise and at Aetna specifically,” Joyner said. “First, Prem Shah, who has been running our pharmacy and consumer wellness business, is elevated to group president and will now also be responsible for the health services segment. Second, we appointed Steve Nelson as President of Aetna. Steve is an industry veteran who has successfully led diverse managed care companies and driven innovation and growth throughout his career. Steve was a former CEO of UnitedHealthcare and has held several leadership roles with a proven track record of delivering growth, profitability, improved employee engagement and customer satisfaction.”

Another recent leadership appointment was Andreana Santangelo as CFO of Aetna.

In Q3, revenues increased to $95.4 billion, up 6.3% compared to $89.7 billion during the third quarter last year.

The company’s health services segment brought in $44.1 billion during the quarter, a 6% decrease compared to $46.8 billion brought in during the same period last year.

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