CVS to Lay Off as Many as 5,000 - Impact on RI Unknown UPDATED

CVS to Lay Off as Many as 5,000 - Impact on RI Unknown UPDATED

CVS, Rhode Island’s largest private for-profit employer, has notified employees that as many as 5,000 employees are facing potential layoffs.

Michael DeAngelis, the spokesperson for the company said in an email to GoLocal, “Rhode Island continues to be CVS Health’s national headquarters.  At this time, we don’t have a regional breakout of job impacts to share, but this decision applies nationally across the company. We have corporate hubs and offices in numerous states and employ more than 300,000 people in the U.S.”

CVS faces complex challenges from companies like Amazon.

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“Our industry is evolving to adapt to new consumer health needs and expectations. As part of an enterprise initiative to reprioritize our investments around care delivery and technology, we must take difficult steps to reduce expenses. This unfortunately includes the need to eliminate a number of non-customer facing positions across the company. We do not expect there to be any impact to our customer-facing colleagues in our stores, pharmacies, clinics or customer services centers. We’re committed to supporting impacted colleagues, and they will receive severance pay and benefits, including access to outplacement services,” said DeAngelis.

“We do not anticipate there will be any impact to our clients and customers as we remain focused on our mission – continuing to provide the exceptional care and support our customers, patients and communities deserve and depend on. Throughout our company’s history, we’ve continuously adapted to market dynamics to lead the industry. The difficult decision we are making will set the company up for long-term success,” he added.

 

Latest for CVS

In the past two years, the company has made a series of multi-billion acquisitions focused on building the company's healthcare structure. CVS purchased Signify and Oak Street Health.

CVS is the 6th largest company in America.

In 2021, CVS announced it would be closing 900 stores over three years, nearly 10% of its U.S. store locations.

In a statement in 2021 CVS said, "The company has been evaluating changes in population, consumer buying patterns and future health needs to ensure it has the right kinds of stores in the right locations for consumers and for the business. As part of this initiative, CVS Health will reduce store density in certain locations and close approximately 300 stores a year for the next three years. The company is committed to offering impacted colleagues roles in other locations or different opportunities as part of its overall workforce strategy. These changes will begin in the spring of 2022."

The company did not disclose what stores would close nor the implications to the workforce in Rhode Island.

As GoLocal reported, some existing stores were tapped to be transformed into so-called health hubs with offerings such as diagnostic testing, mental-health services, and hearing exams.

“The company has been evaluating changes in population, consumer buying patterns and future health needs to ensure it has the right kinds of stores in the right locations for consumers and for the business,” CVS said in a statement at the time.