CVS Health 101 — From Drugstore to Integrated Health Care Company

This opener gives candidates the foundational story of CVS Health: a 1963 corner drugstore in Lowell, Massachusetts that became the first US retailer to stop selling tobacco in 2014, acquired Aetna for ~$70 billion in 2018, and now operates a four-segment integrated health care model — pharmacy, PBM, insurance, and primary care delivery — that no other US company matches. Understanding this arc is essential because every CVS Health interview, from store associate to software engineer to Aetna case manager, eventually circles back to "Why CVS?" and "What do you understand about our model?"