Isn't it possible that the two companies being under the same management could have a second-order effect of expanding their Minute Clinic business? That is, because Aetna is part of the same company, it would be less costly for patients to visit MC since the prices that insurance providers usually have to negotiate with providers would go down enormously (to cost + profit instead of cost + MC profit + Aetna profit), thereby bringing more patients into the fold.
Depends. Kaiser is a great example of this (its a closed loop payer and provider) but it has a huge network within certain regions and doesn't cover nationally. The problem is that CVS via pharmacy retail and MinuteMan only satisfies a part of the whole care provider package. Kaiser on the other hand has it's own providers that carry everything from head to toe (no pun intended). That's why I don't see why this would be such a big deal.
costing savings isn't as immediate or apparent as horizontal merger, otherwise more companies would be doing it. Perhaps it makes more sense in space where there are fewer players, but in healthcare as an overall pie is huge.
