CVS Health Splits Into Two Companies, Both Still Behind the Same Counter
The pharmacy chain and the insurance giant will share 9,000 stores, one receipt printer, and a new line of yellow tape down the middle
A roll of yellow safety tape arrived Saturday at the CVS location in Woonsocket. By Wednesday, executives had announced the tape would become the legal boundary between two new public companies.
CVS Pharmacy will occupy one side of each of the 9,000 stores. CVS Health, with Aetna and Caremark, will occupy the other. They will share the same inventory, the same staff, and the same single working register.
A decal at the entrance reads, "Your prior authorization was denied by the other company."
Customers must choose a side before checkout. The cashier will rotate lanyards between transactions, and the two companies will begin billing each other for every prescription that crosses the center line.
Each shopper will get twenty-six seconds to decide which corporation to blame. The phone number will not change.
