CVS Health's Aetna Advances Initiative to Curb Hospital Readmissions

CVS Health’s CVS insurance arm, Aetna, has announced that it is expanding the Aetna Clinical Collaboration (“ACC”) program to 10 hospitals by the end of 2025. The initiative embeds Aetna nurses within hospitals to help Medicare Advantage members get the care and support they need to remain healthy after leaving the hospital or transitioning into a skilled nursing facility. Implementations are already underway with AdventHealth Shawnee Mission, Houston Methodist and WakeMed Health & Hospitals.

Reducing preventable hospital readmissions has long been a top priority for payers, providers, and policymakers aiming to improve healthcare outcomes and control costs.Re-admissions are more frequent among older populations, with nearly 20% Medicare-insured patients who are hospitalized being readmitted within 30 days of discharge. Aetna launched the first ACC program earlier this year, with roughly one in four program members already actively engaged with an Aetna care manager.

With more than 4 million members over 65, Aetna plans to expand the ACC program across its network in 2026 and beyond. Once fully implemented at scale, the program is expected to reduce 30-day readmissions and hospital length of stay by 5% year over year. Apart from lowering the 30-day readmission rates and emergency room visits, the ACC program also eases the administrative load on hospitals and clinical staff. Aetna is implementing the program for its Commercial business as well.

Meanwhile, CVS Health’s strong execution is helping Aetna restore its target margins. At the same time, the company continues to drive innovation to simplify health care, such as streamlining the prior authorization process in certain areas of cancer care, as well as introducing Aetna Care Paths and AI-driven programs as part of its ongoing technology investments. 

Updates From CVS Health’s Competitors

Humana HUM recently announced its Medicare Advantage and Medicare Prescription Drug Plan offerings for 2026. All Humana non-special needs Medicare Advantage plans include dental, vision and hearing coverage, zero copays for covered preventive dental services and in-network preventive services. Furthermore, preventive and diagnostic screenings for breast cancer, colon cancer and bone density are now included in the Medicare Advantage plans at no additional cost to members. In 2026, Humana will have Medicare Advantage plan offerings in 46 states and Washington, D.C., covering 85% of U.S. counties.

Centene Corp.’s CNC subsidiary,WellCare of North Carolina (WellCare), is investing more than $1.6 million in local nonprofit organizations to support community health across North Carolina. This funding, which began in 2024 and will continue throughout this year, will help support critical healthcare needs such as assisting with food and nutrition, clothing, utilities, housing and interpersonal safety for the state’s most vulnerable citizens, including families and children. 

CVS Stock Performance, Valuation and Estimates

In the past three months, CVS Health shares have risen 17.3% compared with the industry’s 2% growth. 

CVS Health is trading at a forward five-year sales multiple of 0.24, lower than the industry average of 0.40.

See how the analysts are projecting CVS’ 2025 and 2026 earnings.

CVS currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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