UPDATE: March 29, 2023: CVS closed its $8 billion acquisition of Signify on Wednesday. In a statement, CVS CEO Karen Lynch said the transaction will advance the company’s value-based care strategy by enhancing its presence in the home.
CVS and Signify will work on care delivery and engagement particularly for Medicare Advantage customers, according to a release on the deal’s close.
Dive Brief:
- CVS plans to close its acquisition of home healthcare provider Signify Health on or around Wednesday, subject to certain conditions, the company announced Monday.
- CVS agreed to acquire Signify for $30.50 a share in cash in September in a transaction worth roughly $8 billion.
- That deal will close this week as long as CVS and Signify can meet or waive the remaining conditions in their merger agreement, according to CVS. A CVS spokesperson declined to share details on the remaining conditions.
Dive Insight:
CVS agreed to acquire Signify last year following a bidding war for the home healthcare company, winning out over other reported buyers including Amazon and UnitedHealth.
The retail pharmacy giant’s deal to acquire Dallas-based Signify will add 10,000 clinicians under CVS’ umbrella, along with new technology to help providers, plans and employers coordinate in-home care.
CVS has been angling to become a full-service healthcare provider, operating a payer, a pharmacy benefit manager and a chain of medical clinics. The Rhode Island-based company has been particularly active in building out its primary care capabilities, including through its Signify buy and another proposed acquisition of value-based primary care provider Oak Street Health announced last month.
Signify’s network of clinicians meet patients in their homes to identify their medical and social needs, then connect them with any needed follow-up services. The company has grown to serve more than 2.5 million homes, creating a valuable referral stream to other CVS services, according to a release on the deal’s announcement last year.
In that release, CVS CEO Karen Lynch said the addition of Signify will help CVS play a “critical role” in advancing its healthcare services strategy, growth in value-based care and new product offerings for other payers. Signify currently has more than 50 health plans clients.
Signify will continue operating as a payer-agnostic business within CVS once the deal closes.
The acquisition has been subject to regulatory scrutiny. CVS and Signify received a second request from the Department of Justice in October, which gives regulators more time to review the transaction.
Despite heightened oversight from antitrust agencies, a number of big-ticket and controversial healthcare mergers have closed recently, including UnitedHealth’s $13 billion buy of data analytics firm Change Healthcare.
