Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1496781
25 TRANSACTIONS How Walgreens is setting the pace with physician acquisitions By Patsy Newitt In the last few years, Walgreens Boots Alliance has shied its focus from retail pharmacies to physicians. Walgreens CEO Rosalind Brewer had to convince her board of her plans to shi the company's focus, she told e Wall Street Journal on Feb. 19. e board "wasn't entirely sold on her plan to save its ailing drugstore business," the report said, so she took the directors on a visit to VillageMD, a chain of primary care clinics. Walgreens bought a majority stake of VillageMD in 2021 for $5.2 billion, has been expanding its primary care footprint across the U.S. and now has 680 locations in 26 markets. In 2023 alone, Village MD acquired Dallas Internal Medicine and Geriatrics Specialists and physician practice group Summit Health. Aer becoming CEO, "I went deeply into a strategic analysis of what could be next," Ms. Brewer told the Journal. "It was clear to me that, from a strategic standpoint, traditional retail plus the pharmacy business is a very mature business, and at some point we're going to have to have another way to grow revenue." Amazon and CVS also are looking to primary care to drive growth. In July, Amazon agreed to buy primary care company One Medical for $3.9 billion. e acquisition faces antitrust challenges, though it did clear a recent hurdle in Oregon. Also in 2022, CVS Health signed a definitive agreement to acquire home health company Signify Health for around $8 billion and has been looking for further footing in the primary care space. n HCA 'excited' about ambulatory investments: 3 notes By Patsy Newitt A lthough the number of outpatient surgery cases performed at facilities run by Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare decreased in the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to 2021, the company is optimistic about its ambulatory network. Here are three notes from the company's Jan. 27 earnings call, as transcribed by The Motley Fool: 1. HCA has "more de novo development inside of our ambulatory surgery center platform than we've had in the past," CEO Sam Hazen said on the earnings call. "We're really pretty excited about our investments in our ambulatory network, our investments in our acuity programs and in our higher service lines." 2. Same-facility outpatient surgeries were up slightly in the fourth quarter from 2021 and increased 5.6 percent when compared to the third quarter. 3. Total joint business for the fourth quarter was up 6 percent compared to 2021. n Image Credit: CNBC