CVS, UnitedHealth Execs Talk Oak Street Financing, Medicaid Pay Pressures

May 31

During the Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference, CVS Health Corp. executives directly addressed the company’s rumored desire to find a private equity partner to fund the growth of its Oak Street Health clinics. Meanwhile, managed care stocks took a hit after UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty called out reimbursement headwinds associated with Medicaid eligibility redeterminations.

“There’s been a lot of inquiries, you know, based on some recent press reports on Oak Street,” CVS Chief Financial Officer Tom Cowhey said during a May 29 “fireside chat” with Bernstein analyst Lance Wilkes and CVS CEO Karen Lynch. Bloomberg reported on May 23 that the company has reached out to a handful of private equity firms in a bid to generate more capital to support new, senior-focused primary care clinics under the Oak Street brand.

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Health Plan Weekly

Leslie Small

Leslie has been working in journalism since 2009 and reporting on the health care industry since 2014. She has covered the many ups and downs of the Affordable Care Act exchanges, the failed health insurer mega-mergers, and hundreds of other storylines spanning subjects such as Medicaid managed care, Medicare Advantage, employer-sponsored insurance, and prescription drug coverage. As the managing editor of Health Plan Weekly and Radar on Drug Benefits, she writes and edits for both publications while overseeing a small team of reporters who also focus on the managed care sector. Before joining AIS Health, she was a senior editor for the e-newsletter Fierce Health Payer, and she started her career as a copy editor at multiple local newspapers. She graduated with a dual degree in journalism and political science from Penn State University.