CVS announced in the week before Nov. 11, 2026, that it would divide its business into CVS Health and CVS Pharmacy. The company expects the transaction to finish in 2028. CEO David Joyner said in a written statement that the two companies would be more focused and would offer customers greater affordability, access and simplicity.
Under the structure described by the source, CVS Caremark, Aetna and Oak Street Health would form a separate publicly traded company that would initially carry the CVS Health name. CVS Specialty would stay with the pharmacy middleman and insurance operations rather than move with the retail pharmacy chain.
In a post on X, Columbus drug-pricing expert Antonio Ciaccia characterized the transaction as a carve-out of CVS's stronger units from its weaker ones. He added that it was still meaningful progress. The American Economic Liberties Project said in a social media post that the company was trying to head off stronger reforms.
The source ties CVS to Ohio pharmacy changes. It reports that independent pharmacists saw reimbursement declines beginning around 2016 and that CVS began sending them letters in late 2017. One letter from CVS's regional acquisitions director asked whether a pharmacy owner had considered selling. CVS denied favoring its own pharmacies. The Ohio Board of Pharmacy database showed 2,211 pharmacies at a 2015 peak, a figure that later fell by 455, or 21%, according to the source.
Ciaccia, who represented the Ohio Pharmacists Association in 2017, said the restructuring would remove some conflicts of interest.