On the heels of its recent announcement that CVS Health will eliminate about 2,900 jobs nationwide, the health care giant is providing more details about where the cuts are taking place.
CVS will lay off 416 employees over a 14-day period in December at the company's Hartford-based Aetna health insurer subsidiary; 93 work at the facility, while the rest are remote employees. All have been notified, according to a notice sent by CVS to Harford's mayor and the state's Department of Labor on Oct. 6. (CVS also laid off 600 Aetna employees in 2023.)
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As WTIC-TV in Hartford reports:
The announcement comes as part of CVS' effort to increase cost savings by $2 billion over the next several years through "reducing expenses and investing in technologies to enhance how we work," according to CVS spokesperson Mike DeAngelis.
The company previously said that those technologies included more "artificial intelligence and automation."
"To achieve this goal and position for sustainable growth, we will reduce our workforce by less than 1% — approximately 2,900 colleagues across CVS Health," DeAngelis said. "Impacted positions are primarily corporate roles. The reductions will not impact front-line jobs in our stores, pharmacies, and distribution centers."
DeAngelis noted that the company made "extremely difficult" decisions on positions to eliminate, and intends to support workers with severance pay and outplacement services.
According to CTInsider.com, the impacted jobs include administrative titles such as director of strategic planning, executive director of creative and design, and senior analyst of business analytics.
The layoffs are happening as CVS Health explores separating its insurance and retail businesses, putting Aetna — which CVS purchased in 2017 for $69 billion — in a precarious position. CTInsider.com also notes that "Aetna was a likely target of cost-cutting this year, as the division has reported declining revenue and its CEO was fired in August after less than a year on the job."
Here are some of the other positions that, according to The Providence Journal in Rhode Island, will be eliminated at CVS, which is headquartered in Woonsocket, R.I.:
- 8 vice presidents (human resources, shared services, strategy, enterprise strategy)
- 13 analysts
- 69 senior analysts
- 29 executive directors (marketing, software development, pharmacy operations)
- 63 software engineers
- 14 senior manager software engineers
In August, CVS Health reported during a second-quarter earnings webcast that the company closed 851 stores nationwide, with the goal of closing 900 locations.
As Forbes.com noted earlier this year, large pharmacy chains are struggling, thanks to increased competition from Walmart and Amazon. Thousands of independent pharmacies have shuttered, too.
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