How CVS is taking on more acute and chronic care

In 2014, CVS Pharmacies stopped selling tobacco products in any of its locations — foregoing $1.8 billion in sales to make a statement about its evolving role in healthcare.

“We were never going to be acceptable as a real member of the healthcare system if we continued to provide tobacco products,” says Troyen Brennan, M.D., executive vice president and chief medical officer of CVS Health.

Since then, Brennan says, the company has continued to capitalize on its retail convenience and face-to-face contact with patients — with a strategic focus on partnering with heath systems to offload acute and chronic care. Much of that care, he argues, can be provided most efficiently by pharmacists and...