Aetna is not an independent company anymore. CVS Health acquired it in November 2018 for $69 billion, and since then Aetna has operated as CVS Health's health insurance and managed care arm. If you're trying to sell into the health plan, pharmacy benefit management, or managed care side of the business, you're dealing with Aetna-branded operations inside a company with roughly $358 billion in annual revenue (FY2023).
That's a distinction worth making before you register anywhere. CVS Health's retail pharmacy, PBM, and health insurance divisions buy through different channels. Understanding which division your product or service is meant for shapes everything: which portal you use, which buyers you need to reach, and what category experience will actually get you shortlisted.
This guide covers the Aetna angle specifically: health insurance-related purchasing, managed care operations, and what diverse suppliers targeting that side of the business need to know.
The program structure: what exists under CVS Health
CVS Health's supplier diversity program historically operated under its own team and tracked Tier I and Tier II diverse spend across all business segments, including Aetna. The company joined the Billion Dollar Roundtable in 2017, which requires verifiable annual diverse spending of $1 billion or more. CVS reported approximately $4.2 billion in diverse supplier spend for 2022 and set a goal of $5 billion in combined small and diverse supplier spend by 2030.
In 2025, CVS Health made visible cuts to its public DEI and supplier diversity infrastructure. The dedicated supplier diversity page (formerly at cvshealth.com/about-cvs-health/diversity/supplier-diversity) was removed and now redirects to the company homepage. Job titles changed from "Supplier Diversity" to "Supplier Engagement." This does not mean the spend stopped, but the program is less publicly visible and the active goals are harder to confirm from the outside.
For Aetna-specific purchasing, the relevant procurement teams sit inside CVS Health's Health Care Benefits segment. That segment covers Aetna's commercial insurance, Medicare Advantage, Medicaid managed care, and specialty pharmacy operations. The buyers in that segment are separate from the retail or PBM sourcing teams.
Certifications that carry weight
To register as a diverse supplier with CVS Health, you need a current third-party certification. Self-attestation does not count. The certifying bodies CVS has historically recognized:
- NMSDC for minority-owned businesses (MBE)
- WBENC for women-owned businesses (WBE)
- NGLCC for LGBTQ-owned businesses (LGBTBE)
- Disability:IN for disability-owned businesses (DOBE)
- NVBDC or NaVOBA for veteran and service-disabled veteran-owned businesses (SDVOSB/VBE)
- USHCC for Hispanic-owned businesses
- USPAACC for Asian American-owned businesses
For federal contracting work that touches Aetna's government health plan contracts, SBA certifications (8(a), WOSB, HUBZone, SDVOSB) are directly relevant. Aetna's Medicare Advantage and Medicaid plans involve federal and state contracts, and those programs have subcontracting requirements tied to the same SBA certification categories.
If you don't yet hold the right certification, that's the first thing to fix. CertifyAll handles certification filings across multiple agencies and councils so you're not running each application on its own timeline.
What Aetna and its managed care operations actually buy
The health insurance and managed care side of the business buys differently than the retail pharmacy side. The spending categories relevant to Aetna's operations include:
Administrative and operational services - Document management, printing, and mailing for member communications (Explanation of Benefits, policy documents, enrollment kits) - Translation and interpretation for member services in Spanish, Mandarin, Portuguese, and other languages - Call center and member services support - Claims processing and coding support
Healthcare technology - IT infrastructure and managed services supporting health plan operations - Healthcare data analytics and population health reporting - Telehealth and digital health platform integrations - Security and compliance technology for HIPAA-regulated environments
Professional services - Consulting for regulatory compliance, including CMS and state insurance department requirements - Actuarial and risk modeling services - Legal support for healthcare regulatory matters - Provider network relations and credentialing services
Facilities and workplace - Hartford, Connecticut (Aetna's historic headquarters, still housing major operations) has significant facilities spend - CVS Health corporate real estate and workplace services span offices in Woonsocket, RI and multiple regional health plan hubs
Marketing and member engagement - Health and wellness communications - Community outreach and member education programs targeting underserved populations - Creative and production services
If your business touches any of these categories with healthcare-specific experience, that narrows your competition. Managed care operations are regulated environments. Buyers look for vendors who understand HIPAA compliance, CMS requirements, or state insurance department rules, not just the general service category.
Where and how to register
The primary registration path for diverse suppliers targeting CVS Health's indirect procurement, which includes Aetna's business operations, is through the CVS Health supplier portal. The portal at cvshealth.supplierone.co has served as the registration and login tool for the diverse supplier program. Confirm it's currently accepting new registrations before you spend time building a profile there, because the public program infrastructure changed in 2025.
For businesses that supply to the health plan business specifically, direct outreach to the CVS Health Supplier Engagement team is worth attempting alongside portal registration. The team title changed in 2025, but the function exists. A brief, targeted email that names your specific healthcare service category, your certification, your past healthcare clients, and why your offering fits Aetna's managed care operations tends to get more traction than a generic introduction.
Do not pitch the full catalog. Pick the one service where you have the strongest track record in healthcare and lead with that.
Tier II: the realistic first contract
Aetna's largest service providers, major IT vendors, consulting firms, staffing companies, and document management companies report their diverse subcontracting back to CVS Health under the Tier II program. This is often how smaller diverse businesses get their first revenue tied to Aetna.
You don't need a direct Aetna contract to start. Find the large prime contractors serving Aetna's health plan operations and pursue a subcontracting relationship. Primes have their own internal diverse supplier goals, and your certification makes that calculation easier for them.
The companies most likely to be running Tier II relationships in managed care operations include national IT services firms, healthcare management consultancies, and large staffing companies with healthcare practices. NMSDC and WBENC councils in Connecticut and the broader Northeast are good places to identify which primes are actively looking for qualified subcontractors in this space.
Industry events and direct outreach
CVS Health's procurement and supplier engagement teams attend several major conferences where you can make direct contact:
- NMSDC Annual Conference (typically held in November): CVS Health has participated as a corporation member and buyer
- WBENC National Conference: Similarly relevant for WBE-certified businesses targeting CVS Health and Aetna
- America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) Annual Conference: Not a supplier diversity event, but a relevant venue if you're selling healthcare technology or services to health plan operations teams
- Disability:IN Annual Conference: For DOBE-certified businesses, corporate buyers including CVS Health attend
At these events, the goal is a specific conversation about a specific opportunity, not a general introduction. Know your category, know which Aetna business unit is most likely to buy what you sell, and be direct about what you're asking for.
Realistic timeline
Registration to first contact with a relevant buyer: expect two to six months if your profile is strong and you're doing outbound outreach. Passive registration (fill out a form and wait) rarely produces results at this scale.
Registration to first contract: twelve to thirty-six months is realistic for a new Tier I relationship. Tier II can move faster if you're working with a prime that already has an active contract and is actively looking for qualified subcontractors.
The pipeline compression factors: a narrow, specific service category where you have clear healthcare experience; a current certification from an NMSDC, WBENC, or another recognized body; demonstrated ability to meet the compliance and scale requirements for a managed care environment; and a personal connection with either a sourcing manager or a prime contractor's supplier diversity team.
Before you start
Two things to check before putting hours into registration.
First, confirm the current state of the CVS Health supplier portal and program structure directly with the company. The 2025 changes to CVS Health's supplier diversity infrastructure are documented but the exact current status of programs, portal functionality, and active goals requires verification. Spend targets and program commitments that were public in 2022 and 2023 may have changed.
Second, be realistic about where Aetna's procurement teams are concentrated. Hartford, Connecticut remains a major operational hub for Aetna's health plan business. If your business is entirely remote-delivery, that matters less. If your services require on-site presence, proximity to Connecticut, Rhode Island, or a major Aetna regional hub is a factor.
The certification is the prerequisite. The healthcare-specific experience is the differentiator. Get both in order before the outreach starts.
Browse the corporate programs directory to find other large health insurance and healthcare buyers with active supplier diversity programs, and see the full guide on getting into corporate supplier diversity programs for the pattern that applies across all of them.
Fact-check note: Confirm the current status of cvshealth.supplierone.co registration portal, active spend targets, and supplier diversity team contact information against CVS Health's live website and LinkedIn before publishing. CVS Health's public program infrastructure changed in 2025; figures cited above are from 2022-2023 public disclosures. Verify Aetna-specific procurement contacts and Hartford office operational scope with current sources.
