But it does...
I have friends both "sides" and worked for both companies before they were merged and after. Both had their pros and cons.
Leaders have failed us on both sides, and this was 100% a failed merger/acquisition.
CVS vs Aetna is what happens when no effort or funding is put into the culture or integration.
Company is terminally I'll and we are in the 2nd stage of grief... "anger"
This is all stupid mostly stirred up by Aetna people. Get over it, Aetna got bought because it was available and people with money bought it. The employees don’t own it, the shareholders do and they decided to sell it because they can and it doesn’t matter what we think. If you can’t live it then quit and go someplace else.
Yeah she's a woman and so is the majority of Aetna so what! Just remember who chose her to be CEO to beingin with, yeah that's right a man who made billions so why not ask him why he chose this particular woman?!
Hey at least our CEO is a woman though! Right? Right??
I worked for all 3. Started with Caremark and CVS bought them. To be honest CVS didn't understand the PBM business and just got rid of the top people and Caremark is ok but no longer great. Caremark did move up in the ranks with Maintance Choice as it helped CVS and some of their smart people began advancing.
Ended up at part of Aetna in an area away from the main business. Aetna is all politics with 'can you sell insurance'. You could tell them a mile away as they lived to talk about top people by first name.
Trouble is the worst possible leader for the combined company was chosen in Karen. Top it off she began her reign as Covid hit and it was good for healthcare companies. She decided it was due to her brilliance.
Karen is politician who needs her ego polished constantly. So focus was on a book, being called 'the most _____ woman' in whatever magazine she was interviewed in and being the queen of DEI. Pay attention to the business was not her thing. The phrase 'Nero fiddled while Rome burned'. Karen took a company worth $76 Billion after the merger and her purchases spent $88 billion to end up with a $78 billion dollar company. Karen could have burned that money and sold the ashes for more that she got back.
Give it some time. They ain't gonna make it to 2030 at this rate.
Aetna is not the only one getting layoffs. CVS Pharmacy teams have been significantly impacted as well. I echo what others said, it should not be us against them.people at the very top did not do a great job of integration. Not qualified enough to say if Merger was a good idea but I can definitely say that execution was cr-ppy. All boils down to the leadership. We even had an integration track for a long time. I don’t think they created any significant value.
I never viewed it as us against them. I more or less thought the acquisition was a bad idea for both entities. Lo and behold it has been. Both sides have suffered. CVS with closures, to include minute clinics and Aetna with these horrific layoffs.
I agree with @vcb+1uOpl4v9. The pharmacy side and Aetna systems are outdated specifically RXclaims and EPDB. QNXT Trizetto is okay for a first payer relational database system but we've ba----dized it badly with our home grown configurations. All the "systems" feed off the data that's completely corrupted because both sides of the company hire mo--ns who don't know their own data or processes. Their no cohesion end to end anywhere. That's why it's a joke when Karen says we are one company in the town halls.
From onboarding to training and continuous improvement, CVS leadership lacks the ability to really admit what’s the real problem. Greed. No amount of layoffs and cuts is going to fix the infection that has taken over this company. Lack of integration, interoperability and using outdated technology. Invest in automation, training, and in your people first not more companies to destroy and wreck. Oak street Health paying 60 million in fines. Bswift divestiture. Aetna losing their rating in 2023. CVS deserves to bottom out. My only sympathy is for the employees and customers who they don’t care about.