Thread regarding CVS layoffs

Everything CVS touches turns to cr-p. They’ll destroy Signify the same way they did to Oak Street Health, Aetna and Bswift. Instead of taking profits and using it to integrate systems, and automation we threw money at buying more companies and spread itself too thin and can’t properly manage any division. We promote supervisors simply because they be been there for a long time but aren’t fit to lead. We hire managers and don’t pay the national average but expect the output of 2 people. EVP, SVPs making decisions about frontline work, and are so far removed from the day to day operations they have no clue what the day to day work life of an employee is like especially the employees who interact directly with customers/patients. Because of all these cuts frontline employees are burnt out and angry, creating a toxic culture the has trickled down to the customers. Not sure what’s going to happen after this “strategic review” but I suspect nothing will. It will be business as usual with more cuts every time they make more bad decisions, Mo--ns run CVS and mo--ns will destroy it until it’s unrecognizable.

Split it up

Let's talk reality. In store pharmacy industry is dying. More so apparently post COVID-19. People are use to ordering their prescriptions through an app or through PCP , urgent care, and dare I say online delivery. They don't want to walk into a store and buy over priced store items they can get cheaper at the dollar store down the block or delivered by Amazon. I have a CVS employee discount and even I don't want to buy that over priced make-up and toilet paper.
Larry had a genius idea to drive people to his stores with primary care and behavioral services before Walmart. He had the stores on every neighborhood block to really dominate it, more than Walmart. Aetna's healthcare is about the only good thing going for the stores. Now why Larry stay to see it all the way who knows.
Regardless both CVS and Aetna need each other as more startup tech companies drive the industry foward.
And as someone mentioned if United Healthcare can do it why can't we?

I believe it is a two way street. There are some pretty cr-ppy Aetna employees and there are some pretty cr-ppy CVS employees. Some of the comments are correct, many Aetna employees are lifers used to a different culture and the respectability that came with working for Aetna. They have been here 10+ years. One just retired after 40 years of being an Aetna employee. CVS has such high turnover, it is hard to get to know anyone and their work ethic but I can say this. I have found both good and bad on both sides. It is not a one sided or one against the other, it is the leadership as a whole.

Why are you trying to divide people? We are all in this mess because of someone else greed and mismanagement. We should be supporting each other.

At least on the DDAT side legacy CVS people were way WORSE than legacy Aetna folks. Just in my experience

Legacy CVS guys were typical Indian bullies

CVS (as a store) didn’t care about Aetna, they care about a PBM driving traffic to stores.

Caremark (internal PBM) only cares about a health insurance forcing people and employers to use them as a PBM

Aetna just cares about someone with extreme profitability mitigating their losses (which happens to be Front store retail)

Front store needs Rx to drive customers into the store…

And we’re back at the top.

They created a self eating snake and now that the snake is well past its tail they are scratching their heads and ba--s wondering why it wasn’t a perfect plan.

Neither Aetna nor CVS colleagues are better. But on the PBM side it sure as he-l felt better and there weren’t layoffs like this prior to KL taking over. I don’t believe it’s the merger that’s the problem - UHG has both insurance and their own PBM, for instance. It’s the leadership, folks. Can we all be nice? It’s not your Aetna or CVS rank-and-file colleague that’s laying you off or ruining the culture.

Aetna was a Fortune 500 company with a 3 digit stock price. Conservative and respected company. It's hardly in the spotlight anymore. Not sure where the cvs guy sees that. Karen ruined the companies. Agree on that. Aetna didn't outsource until Rowe came along then the company started slowly going to shi. CVS is so far left you can go into the Hartford building and see people damn near wearing pajamas or walking into India. Go woke go broke. Someone will save aetna and pull it back out of cvs. Then we will all be happy.

Maturity matters. Simply recognize that each entity is best run independently and leave the insults out of it. Act like the people your loved ones believe you to be.

It’s not the CVS people that legacy Aetna didn’t mesh with it’s the cr-ppy culture. Aetna was used to being respected and rewarded for effort, skill and knowledge while CVS goes for bottom of the barrel every time. Quite honestly, it’s probably a coincidence because let’s face it I’ve probably only interacted with a dozen or so CVS employees but they were nothing to be proud of. If I put all of their braincells together in one box I would be lucky to find an entire functioning brain cell. But you get what you pay for. Also, bragging about being a PBM in this market or their cr-ppy retail stores, isn’t the flex you think it is. That would be like Aetna bragging about being an insurance company. No. Larry and Karen plundered the Aetna business for their own gain and this is what happens when you are a poor leader, businesses fail.

I’m sure I’ll get thumbs downed here but thanks for sticking up for the cvs side. I had nothing against Aetna but it’s really tiring seeing them cr-p all over cvs here. Cvs dominated retail pharmacy and dominated in PBM’s. Things started going downhill when a bunch of Aetna people took over in the c-suite and they blame everything on cvs here?

I believe it's the other way around.