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CVS Health Corp. is betting $8 billion that the house call is the future of healthcare. The drugstore giant’s deal to acquire home-healthcare company Signify Health Inc., announced Monday, will add 10,000 contracted doctors and clinicians and give CVS a hand in coordinating medical care for millions of Americans. CVS, the nation’s biggest healthcare company by revenue, said that it agreed to acquire Signify for $30.50 per share in an all-cash deal, confirming earlier Wall Street Journal reports. (Terlep, 9/5)

“This is not a deal about money,” said Signify Health CEO Kyle Armbrester in an interview with The Dallas Morning News. “This is a deal about building something better.” (O'Donnell, 9/5)

In Signify, CVS is acquiring a company that offers analytics and technology to help a network of 10,000 doctors provide in-home health care to 2.5 million patients across the United States. Signify has a focus on those on Medicare and in underserved communities. “Their interest is to take over the home,” said Dr. Eric Topol, a professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research in San Diego, who noted that any care provided to patients at home, rather than in the hospital, lightens the financial load on insurance companies, including Aetna, the insurance business that CVS owns. Signify contracts with insurance providers, including Aetna. (Hirsch, 9/5)

CVS Health’s Aetna, Humana and UnitedHealth Group’s UnitedHealthcare are the three largest Medicare Advantage carriers and Signify Health’s three largest customers. UnitedHealth Group Optum’s healthcare services arm operates the second-largest home health risk adjustment provider HouseCalls, which will conduct 2 million home visits in 2022, Cowen analyst Gary Taylor wrote in an August research note. Humana last year bought the remaining shares of Kindred at Home, purchasing the nation’s largest home health provider to $8.1 billion.  (Tepper and Perna, 9/5)

The acquisition would continue CVS’ effort to grow from its pharmacy-chain roots to other sectors of the health industry. In 2018, the Woonsocket, Rhode Island, company purchased health insurer Aetna for $69 billion. CVS will pay $30.50 per share in cash for Signify. According to a CVS presentation, the deal has a stock value of $7.6 billion, with the total transaction rising to about $8 billion with debt, equity appreciation rights and other items are included. (9/5)