CVS Health is looking to sell individual coverage with the “CVS-Aetna” brand on exchanges under the Affordable Care Act in up to eight states for 2022. The chosen states are yet to be disclosed.
- Improvement in revenue: CVS chief executive Karen Lynch said during the company’s first-quarter earnings call that the ACA business has improved and will be an important part of the company’s strategy. CVS Health left the ACA’s exchanges four years ago under prior Aetna management along with other insurers that were unable to manage rising costs of uninsured patients signing up for such coverage.
- Pledge to provide affordable healthcare: “We expect to enter up to eight states where we believe we can make a meaningful impact and maximize returns with our first-ever Aetna-CVS branded offerings,” Lynch told analysts. “We are committed to helping provide access to affordable care for all Americans.”
- Rates to offer individual care: Lynch said the company is just now working with insurance regulators and submitting plans and rates to offer individual coverage under the ACA, which is also known as Obamacare after President Obama, who signed the ACA into law in 2010.
- A high influx of subscribers to Obamacare: When the ACA became law the CVS-Aetna moved back into the ACA individual business to boost enrollment and reach out to communities of uninsured Americans. Thanks to new regulations and support to the companies and Americans looking for coverage from the Biden administration, a high influx of new individual Obamacare subscribers are already being seen.
- The path towards progress: “Given that we are entering into the exchanges that are a market that we have 12 million to 15 million people that we don’t have access to today,” Lynch said. “We are clearly going to offer an Aetna-CVS branded product. We will continue to have our narrow networks and we are in the midst of filing rates.”