CVS HEALTH CORPORATION Wells Fargo 21st Annual Healthcare Conference

Yeah, thanks. Probably momentum is the word I would use, Steve, that if you look across the various portfolio of the companies, Steve, to start with yours on the Aetna side, since 2024, we've been on sort of a steady march to get back to target margin. And Steve's been doing an extraordinary job leading the execution, very disciplined. So momentum, a lot of momentum in the Aetna business. If you look at the pharmacy business, similarly, that business was negative for a few years. Last year, we posted mid-single digit growth. This year, we'll be up mid-single as well. So suddenly the investments we were making in terms of technology, in terms of colleagues, it's starting to pay off. On the Caremark side, we'll deliver the guide this year, so in that sense, they have momentum.

We did call out some of the headwinds for 2027, but overall, feel like the business as it transitions, I see that business getting back to target margins, clicking through after 2027. And then finally, the last business, HCD, I feel very good about Oak Street in particular.

Yeah. About four quarters ago, they kind of arrested some of the profit challenges, and it's been slow and steady progress.

Yeah. The last thing I would say is capital.

As you think about the balance sheet and leverage, a lot of momentum there. We are getting to a place where we are happy and start to spin off cash. Overall, I think you do all those things, the momentum adds up to a say do, and you do what you say, and I think we are building credibility.

Yeah. Just to kind of build on Brian's comments, we do have a lot of momentum, and I will kind of point to some of the reasons for that. It starts, honestly, for me, when I joined 2 years ago, the opportunity to participate in an organization that is incredibly well positioned to have a real meaningful impact on the U.S. healthcare system. Our ambition is to become the most trusted healthcare company in America and to simplify healthcare, and Aetna plays an incredibly important role in that. So really, a lot of the momentum and progress we have made starts with aligning our employee base around that purpose. I know this is not hardcore financial engineering, but this makes a difference, and we have seen a lot of rallying around, hey, we do important work, and people are excited about it.

That is one thing that we started talking about a couple of years ago. Along with that was a real focus on the fundamentals of the business.

Yeah. When I say fundamentals, I mean everything from creating a stable operating platform, to making sure that we have our hands around forecasting.

Yeah. That leads to then disciplined pricing, discipline around how you do MA bids, all those things.

Just discipline and strong execution in the fundamentals of the business have been a theme. Very excited about how that has led to this momentum. But then on top of that, we've been able to really focus on what we call distinction and creating innovation, whether it's leading the way in Prior Authorization reform, trying to think about how we engage with providers differently- Yeah helping consumers navigate, and we have leading digital capabilities.

All these things are now coming together where we have both the fundamentals, and we have leading capabilities, and we've built a really strong team. Out of the 13 senior executives at Aetna, 12 are either new to role or new to Aetna in the last two years. This is all coming together for us. I'm always going to say we have more work to do.

Yeah. But the competitive positioning that we have, I think allows us to navigate sort of the choppy waters that you mentioned, better than I would say for sure we could two years ago, and I think honestly better than some of our peers because we have those fundamentals down.