Healthcare CVS Beats Amazon And Rivals For Signify Health With Winning $8 Billion Bid Bruce Japsen Senior Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. I write about healthcare business and policy Following New! Follow this author to stay notified about their latest stories. Got it! Sep 5, 2022, 05:08pm EDT | New! Click on the conversation bubble to join the conversation Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin CVS Health will acquire home care company Signify Health for $8 billion as retail pharmacies add . . . [+] more primary care and in-home medical services. In this photo is signage outside a CVS pharmacy store in San Francisco, California, U. S. , on Thursday, April 28, 2022. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg © 2022 Bloomberg Finance LP CVS Health will acquire home care company Signify Health for $8 billion as retail drugstores add more primary care and in-home medical services. CVS apparently beat out other healthcare and retail companies including Amazon and UnitedHealth Group’s Optum medical care provider business that had reportedly been interested in Signify Health or at least looked into the potential of adding the home care company. But CVS announced on Monday afternoon that the drugstore giant has “entered into a definitive agreement under which CVS Health will acquire Signify Health for $30. 50 per share in cash, representing a total transaction value of approximately $8 billion. ” In buying Signify Health, CVS Health will add to its growing menu of healthcare services that includes more than 9,000 retail drugstores, 1,100 MinuteClinics staffed by nurse practitioners and the nation’s third largest health insurer, Aetna. CVS called Signify Health a leader in “health risk assessments” with a network of more than 10,000 clinicians across all 50 states. “Signify Health's network of clinicians —physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants — utilize home-based visits to identify a patient's clinical and social needs, and then connect them to appropriate follow-up care and community-based resources in order for the patient to have a more connected, effective care experience,” CVS said in announcing the purchase. The effort to add a home care provider was a key part of CVS Health’s plan to bolster its healthcare and technology platform this year. “Signify Health will play a critical role in advancing our health care services strategy and gives us a platform to accelerate our growth in value-based care,” said CVS Health President and CEO Karen S. Lynch. “This acquisition will enhance our connection to consumers in the home and enables providers to better address patient needs as we execute our vision to redefine the health care experience. In addition, this combination will strengthen our ability to expand and develop new product offerings in a multi-payor approach. ” MORE FOR YOU CDC: Salmonella Outbreak Has Left 279 Ill, 26 Hospitalized In 29 States Canadians End Up In ICU After Attending ‘Covid Party’ White House Mandates Pfizer Vaccines for Millions of Citizens . . . Before the FDA Clinical or Safety Reviews Have Been Made Public The much-anticipated announcement by CVS comes less than a week after rival Walgreens Boots Alliance announced it had completed its $330 million majority stake investment in post acute and home care company CareCentrix. The $330 million CareCentrix investment is for an initial 55% stake with an option to raise the stake in the future, Walgreens said. Such deals are further signs that retail healthcare providers like CVS, Walgreens, Walmart and Amazon are looking to further serve the outpatient needs of U. S. consumers. In 2022, Signify Health clinicians “expect to connect with nearly 2. 5 million unique members in the home, both in-person and virtually,” Signify and CVS said in a statement Monday. “Signify Health’s mission is to build trusted relationships to make people healthier by using actionable intelligence to understand what’s really impacting outcomes and cost today,” Signify Health chief executive Kyle Armbrester said. “As we carefully considered our long-term strategic options, we determined that CVS Health is the ideal partner, given its focus on expanding access to health services and helping consumers navigate to the best sites of care. We are both building an integrated experience that supports a more proactive, preventive and holistic approach to patient care, and I look forward to executing on our shared vision for the future of care delivery. ” The companies said they expect the acquisition to close in the first half of next year. “We expect the acquisition to be meaningfully accretive to earnings and, as a result, are increasingly confident we can achieve our long-term adjusted EPS goals as outlined at our Investor Day in December 2021,” “This is a major step as we continue to execute on our strategy,” CVS Health chief financial officer Shawn Guertin said. Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn . Check out my website or some of my other work here . Bruce Japsen Editorial Standards Print Reprints & Permissions.