Signify Well being CEO Kyle Armbrester on What’s Subsequent After CVS’ $8 Billion Acquisition

When your new speedy boss is now the CEO of the fourth largest company within the nation, issues are certain to vary. For Dallas-based well being platform Signify Well being, being acquired by pharmacy and insurance coverage big CVS Well being for $8 billion will imply extra assets and alternatives for growth. However extra importantly, he says, it should proceed to serve sufferers, suppliers, and payers as the corporate all the time has, and he and the corporate aren’t going anyplace.

CVS closed the acquisition of Signify earlier this week after it was introduced final fall. Signify was fashioned by a personal equity-backed merger of the 2 main suppliers of tech-based healthcare companies CenseoHealth and Advance Well being. in 2017. In 2021, it raised $564 million in its preliminary IPO, giving it a market capitalization of greater than $7 billion on the time. It has change into a platform that makes use of analytics, expertise, and supplier networks to allow value-based care, enhance outcomes, and decrease healthcare prices, all whereas shifting care into the house.

Armbrester is proud to affix the CVS household and known as CVS CEO Karen Lynch an inspirational chief. He says he’s wanting ahead to persevering with to guide Signify. He says it should proceed to function as a very impartial and payer-agnostic enterprise of which CVS Well being Aetna is a buyer.

So what’s altering? First, CVS gives a sturdy community of pharmacy companies that can assist sufferers with their dwelling care. Medicine adherence, price points, and poor drug interactions are all areas the place Armbrester says Signify can profit from the experience of CVS. Bringing that data to the nationwide supplier community is an thrilling alternative to enhance outcomes, he says.

Entry to billions in capital is one other bonus, he says. Having the ability to do all of the issues Signify already does at an elevated scale will enable it to proceed taking analytic and administrative burdens off of hospitals. Elevated funding will allow Signify to increase its partnerships and acquisition exercise.
Signify turned a pretty goal as a consequence of its connection to leverage a number of tendencies within the healthcare trade, Armbrester days. First, extra care is shifting into the house, propelled by the elevated capabilities and decreased measurement of medical units. Second, connectivity is up, and extra well being knowledge is accessible than ever earlier than. An organization that may leverage that knowledge and makes use of it to align payers and suppliers by way of value-based care can considerably change the trade. Lastly, Armbrester says that at present’s seniors are higher than we predict at accessing the expertise wanted to make this sort of care potential.

“Youthful seniors are smartphone Jedis,” he says. “They’ll textual content, are extraordinarily refined, and are interacting with us in a brand new approach.”

He says that the deal with value-based care, connection to suppliers and caregivers within the dwelling well being and hospital trade, and the synergy and camaraderie between the CVS and Signify groups have been additionally necessary elements within the deal.

Whereas an enormous acquisition by a significant participant within the trade might be a chance to exit and take a look at one thing new, Armbrester says he seems ahead to main the corporate, which is able to proceed to be primarily based in Dallas, into the longer term. “We’re lengthy on Dallas and can maintain the workplace right here,” he says. “This transfer was not about cost-cutting. We might be hiring and diversifying.”

For Armberster, this mission is about greater than shareholder worth, inventory worth, and monetary measures, although, in fact, they’re necessary. After private experiences that concerned the mismanagement of care on the finish of life, Armbrester has been dedicated to influencing the world by way of healthcare. “It’s my life’s mission to make a constructive influence,” he says. “Signify is a good instance of that.”