Content about Advisor

CVS Caremark executives were upbeat during last week’s conference call with analysts as the company pulled in a “strong” first quarter and narrowed its 2013 guidance to reflect higher-than-expected performance.

The positive start to 2013 is important as it further demonstrates that CVS Caremark’s distinctive, integrated healthcare model is resonating and spelling success for this pharmacy innovation company.

Two-hundred-ninety billion dollars. That’s the number often thrown around when health experts talk about what medication nonadherence costs patients, insurers, health plan payers and the U.S. economy every year. And of course, dollar estimates say nothing about the impact that nonadherence has on patients and their families in higher chronic and acute disease rates, reduced quality of life and shortened lifespans.

So the failure by patients to take their meds as prescribed is a big deal. And it’s gotten a lot of attention from payers in the last couple of years because it’s one of the most obvious levers to pull as public and private health plan sponsors struggle to get a grip on the astronomical and still-expanding cost of health care in the United States.

CVS Caremark has announced the extension of its Pharmacy Advisor program to cover an additional five chronic conditions, including asthma, breast cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, depression and osteoporosis.

Ultimately, there’s no “retail pharmacy” without the “pharmacy,” and that’s true of any store that dispenses prescription drugs — whether it’s a small independent drug store, a nationwide chain, a supermarket or a mass merchandiser. But in many respects, Rite Aid is trying to make the “pharmacy” component of that phrase just a little bit bigger.


With healthcare reform on track to bring 32 million more Americans into the healthcare system in 2014, and with payers and patients looking for solutions to curb costs as the nation battles a shortage of primary care physicians and access to quality care, CVS Caremark’s role in reinventing pharmacy through its distinctive business model couldn’t be more imperative than it is today.


CVS Caremark is also working to reinvent the role of its retail pharmacists and is gaining share by focusing on customer service, greater adherence, increased access and patient 
care improvements.

You want Rite Aid to win. A Rite Aid win represents a proof of concept — that concept being the creation of an effective market-driven loyalty program that incorporates savings on the healthcare services that actually works and in fact cross-pollinates pharmacy patients and front-end shoppers; that concept being that generic waves need not wash out all pharmacy sales volume if a pharmacy retailer can successfully grow ancillary healthcare services, such as immunizations or Rite Aid's new Rite Care Prescription Advisor; that concept being that there is in fact a return on investment from placing a knowledgeable team member armed with a tablet of health information physically in the aisles to proactively engage patients.

Rite Aid is offering personalized reports designed to increase medication adherence, the company said Tuesday.

CVS Caremark's chief healthcare strategy officer on Friday outlined how the company's integrated offerings — retail pharmacy, pharmacy benefit management and retail clinics — are helping patients achieve better health by working to increase medication adherence and targeting behaviors to improve treatment for chronic diseases during a panel discussion at the Wharton Health Care Business Conference.

CVS Caremark's chief healthcare strategy officer on Tuesday outlined how the company's integrated pharmacy-based program for such chronic diseases as diabetes, called Pharmacy Advisor, increased medication adherence rates and physician initiation of prescriptions for concomitant medications to improve patient health.

At its annual Analyst Day in New York on Tuesday, CVS Caremark executives outlined strong growth for 2012 and unveiled several new offerings and initiatives that are expected to help drive profitable long-term growth as it works to reinvent pharmacy and focus on its “integration sweet spots.”

GelStat Corp. on Tuesday announced it has retained Scarsdale Equities as its financial adviser to explore various strategic alternatives.