News Briefs

✦ CVS Health Corp. on Nov. 6 reported that its third-quarter 2020 adjusted earnings per share (EPS) was $1.66, beating the Wall Street consensus estimate of $1.33. From a quarterly operational perspective, “performance was well balanced with better results across PBM, retail, and health benefits,” Citi analyst Ralph Giacobbe observed. CVS also revised its adjusted EPS guidance to a range of $7.35 to $7.45, up from $7.14 to $7.27. In addition, the company revealed that CEO Larry Merlo will step down from his post in February, and that Karen Lynch, current executive vice president of CVS Health and president of Aetna, will take his place. Giacobbe said Citi was “a bit surprised” at the timing of CVS’s leadership change, since it’s still in the early stages of transforming its business. “Nonetheless, we believe expectations had been for change over time, and the appointment of Karen Lynch speaks to continuation of focus on health merging with retail serving as a differentiated diversified model,” he wrote. Read more at https://bit.ly/3l5tzP6 and https://bit.ly/3p2W3Lz.

✦ CMS approved Georgia’s Section 1332 waiver application to eliminate the state’s use of HealthCare.gov as a centralized enrollment platform starting in 2023, though the approval might be reversed or changed if former Vice President Joe Biden becomes president. Under the demonstration program, the state will still check consumers’ eligibility for exchange coverage, but all other consumer-facing activities will be outsourced to private web brokers and insurance companies. Read the approval letter from CMS at https://go.cms.gov/2TUn31I.

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