CVS Health announced earlier this year that it would cut 5,000 corporate jobs in a bid to cut costs, and new filings across several states offer a look at where those cuts are taking place.
The bulk of the layoffs revealed late last week are in either Rhode Island, where the company is headquartered, or Connecticut, the home of its Aetna subsidiary. CVS Health is based in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, while Aetna's headquarters are in Hartford.
CVS has a total workforce of about 300,000 across the country. CVS spokesperson Mike DeAngelis told Fierce Healthcare that impacted employees were notified last week about the layoffs.
In a notice (PDF) filed with Rhode Island officials, CVS lists nearly 770 positions that will be cut as part of the restructuring, with the first round of layoffs beginning today. Others will continue through December, according to the filing.
Just 198 of the layoffs impact Rhode Island residents, with most instead impacting remote workers, according to the notice.
About 520 positions will be eliminated in Connecticut, according to a notice (PDF) filed with officials in the Constitution State. Of those, 306 positions belong to in-state residents.
When the layoffs were first announced, CVS stressed that it was not planning to cut customer-facing jobs in its pharmacies, retail stores and clinics.
Under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, companies are required to post notifications of mass layoffs.
In New York, the company will cut 167 jobs, according to a filing (PDF) with the state, and in Arizona it will eliminate 134 positions. In addition, 288 employees from CVS' Florida offices will be cut, per Healthcare Dive.
CVS executives said earlier this month that the layoffs will be pivotal in its goal of cutting between $700 million and $800 million in costs for 2024. The company also undergoes routine reviews of its portfolio to determine which segments may not align with strategic goals; for instance, CVS chose earlier this year to close down its clincial trials business.