Walgreens Boots Alliance CEO Roz Brewer last week suggested the company may be expanding into health care technology, while CVS Health CEO Karen Lynch last week said the company is aiming to ultimately touch the "entire spectrum of someone's health journey."

Walgreens considers moving into health care technology

According to Brewer, Walgreens' fiscal year results exceeded expectations this year, and the company is looking to move into the health care technology world.

"We're pleased with the assets that we have, but we remain committed to our prior conversation that probably our next asset will look something like a tech asset," Brewer said.

However, whatever Walgreens chooses to acquire will depend on whether the potential acquisition is achieving its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, Brewer added.

John Driscoll, president of U.S. health care for Walgreens, said the company's expansion within the health care industry will help patients better coordinate their care.

"We're creating a nationally scaled health care business, which will leverage our entire portfolio to deliver better care at lower costs," he said. "And by focusing our portfolio on these higher-growth markets, we will accelerate the return on our investment and our path to profitability in U.S. healthcare."

What CVS plans to do going forward

Meanwhile, Lynch last week outlined her plans for CVS to touch the "entire spectrum of someone's health journey," part of which included CVS' acquisition of Signify Health last month. "That puts us smack dab in the middle of the home," Lynch said.

Lynch added CVS is interested in expanding into primary care and expects an acquisition to be announced later this year. CVS is also piloting a new technology allowing patients to tell pharmacies when they intend to pick up their prescriptions.

"Technology is a game-changer in health care," Lynch said. "If we don't stay up on technology, we're never going to get that connected care and that personalized care."

Lynch said she hopes to engage more with customers over the next five years so that whenever patients interact with CVS, they'll be connected with the company.

"It's about health. It's about engagement with individuals. You can't improve health if you don't have that engagement," she said.

When asked how CVS intends to compete with Amazon given the company's recent purchase of One Medical, Lynch said she believes CVS has a head start because it has built years of trust with consumers and it understands the complicated nuances of the health care space. Lynch added that, in conversations with customers, she's learned the importance of trust.

"They really want to trust and engage with companies that have earned the right to be in health care," Lynch said. "What we did in the pandemic to vaccinate America has really allowed us as a company to earn the right to be in health care. I think about Amazon as sort of a transactional company today." (Berryman, Modern Healthcare, 10/13; McGrath, Boston Business Journal, 10/13)