Walgreens in another ‘go big or go home’ move. Bloomberg reported yesterday that Walgreens Boots Alliance is considering an acquisition of Evolent Health, a Washington DC-based healthcare management and administrative services company. It’s another move that indicates that their growth plans continue to be in technology-based services, provider services, and diversifying away from brick-and-mortar pharmacy.
An acquisition of Evolent would add to Walgreens a suite of management services around total cost of care for payers and providers through Evolent Care Services (administrative, operations), provider management services in value-based care models such as ACOs through Evolent Care Partners, and specialty care management for oncology and cardiology through New Century Health. Notably, Walgreens would grow ever closer to primary care providers through Evolent Care Partners, a 1,000 provider, six-state ACO network covering 90,000 lives.
Last week, Walgreens bolstered its pharmacy operations through a majority investment of $970 million in specialty pharmacy company Shields Health Solutions, also a fit with the proposed Evolent acquisition with their specialty care management area.
Should this go through, it further differentiates Walgreens from rival CVS Aetna as a services provider.
Evolent is a public company trading on the NYSE with a current valuation of $2.71 billion, so it won’t come cheaply. Reuters
Most Recent Comments