CVS Health Corp., a major distributor of the COVID-19 vaccine though the federal pharmacy partnership program, said Tuesday it is providing 250,000 immunizations a week in 11 states — including Connecticut — at 350 locations, as the country ramps up to meet ambitious vaccination goals set by the administration of President Joe Biden.
“This is the linchpin of the Biden Administration plan to vaccinate 300 million Americans by the end of the summer,” Karen S. Lynch, CVS’ chief executive said, on a conference call with Wall Street analysts. “We will continue to add more stores as the vaccine supply increases.”
Meanwhile, Lynch also announced that CVS, parent company of Hartford-based Aetna, would re-enter the individual public exchange market as of Jan. 1, 2022. Aetna had pulled out the market entirely in 2018.
CVS executives on the call — focused on fourth-quarter earnings — said the pandemic also has led them to pursue a 30% reduction of office space across the country, as COVID-19 has changed how employees will work in the future, both at home and in the office.
No timetable or locations for the office space reduction were mentioned, and a spokesman said after the call said there were no other further details available. However, cost savings measures such as this are expected to gain momentum throughout the year, executives said.
CVS said they anticipated that a third supplier of the COVID-19 vaccine — Johnson & Johnson — would be given emergency authorization for use, an approval that would be critical to reaching Biden’s immunization goals.
The federal Food and Drug Administration is set to meet later this month on Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine. If approved, the pharmaceutical giant would join Pfizer Inc. and partner BioNTech SE as well as Moderna Inc., given the green light in December.
“In our conversations with pharmaceutical manufacturers, we’re estimating 500 million doses of vaccine between now and the end of June,” Jonathan Roberts, CVS’s chief operating officer, said. “We think there is going to be good supply, and it should begin to open up in April.”
CVS said it anticipates that it can administer up to 25 million doses a month, but that depends on the supply of vaccine.
Lynch said CVS, a major vaccine distributor in long-term facilities working in Connecticut and other states said it expects to complete the second dose at nursing homes by the end of the month.
“We are on track to complete both doses of vaccine administration for assisted-living facilities by mid-March,” Lynch said. “This will fulfill our commitment to administer vaccine in long-term care facilities.”
Rejoining Obamacare
Aetna, prior to being acquired in 2018 by CVS, had blamed “marketplace structural issues” as the reasons for it pulling out of participation in the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. The reasons included health care co-op failures, exits by health insurers and a deteriorating risk pool leaving behind sicker, poorer people that lead to higher insurance rates.
“As the ACA has evolved, there is evidence of market stabilization and remedies to earlier structural issues,” Lynch said. “It is time for us to participate in these markets.
Lynch said there are 10 million to 15 million people to which CVS could offer health insurance. Lynch said it hasn’t been decided where the coverage will be offered.
“We view that the combination of the insurance and CVS Health access as a unique opportunity to put a competitive product on the market,” Lynch said. “It will be our first CVS Health-Aetna product that we put into the market.”
