The landscape for the delivery of health care in the United States is changing, but the traditional care-delivery players are not the change agents. The recent announcement of CVS’s $69 billion deal to acquire Aetna brings an insurer together with a large network of primary care providers: CVS has built more than 1,100 Minute Clinic locations inside its pharmacy stores in 33 states and the District of Columbia. Also, Optum a division of UnitedHealth Group, the largest health insurer in America, has quietly amassed a group of medical providers over 20,000 strong, and on December 6, UnitedHealth announced plans to acquire DaVita Medical Group for the $4.9 billion. DaVita operates nearly 300 medical clinics, 35 urgent-care centers, and six outpatient surgery centers in California, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, and Washington.
