Content about Health economics

With pharmaceutical and healthcare expenditures on the rise, a primary care shortage at hand and an expected upswing in patients diagnosed with chronic diseases, there’s no denying that the marketplace is in the midst of an evolution. Despite the challenges, Walgreens’ health-and-wellness division has positioned itself for such changes and, according to headquarter executives, has a winning strategy in place — broadening and deepening its payer relationships.


NEW YORK — Convenience and cost savings offered by retail-based health clinics are attractive to urban patients. Given sufficient cost savings, those urban patients are likely to seek care at such facilities, causing possible further growth and employment opportunities for nurse practitioners in these clinics, according to research published in the Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners.

WASHINGTON — A healthcare accrediting organization is revising three products in its Pharmacy Quality Management suite of programs.

URAC said its pharmacy committee approved revisions to its mail service, specialty pharmacy, and workers' compensation and property and casualty for pharmacy benefit management accreditation programs. The products revised include:

• Mail-service pharmacy, version 2.0;

• Specialty pharmacy, version 2.0; and

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Humana's pharmacy benefit management business has been awarded pharmacy benefit management accreditation from a nonprofit healthcare accrediting organization.

Humana Pharmacy Solutions was awarded full pharmacy benefit management accreditation by URAC. URAC standards require companies to demonstrate their commitment to quality and safety.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT — The fact that CVS Caremark's MinuteClinic was highlighted as an innovator of healthcare delivery by the World Economic Forum's Innovation Health Care Delivery Project is important on several fronts. Not only does the recognition further illustrate the important role that convenient care clinics are playing in U.S. health care, but perhaps even more importantly, this forum also was a global stage for the clinic operator.

CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa. Take Care Health Systems, which is owned by Walgreens, announced on Monday that treatment of pharyngitis and upper respiratory infections at its clinics exceed national quality benchmarks, according to an analysis of data collected through its EMR system by the Jefferson School of Population Health.

CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa. —Take Care Health Systems, which is owned by Walgreens, built its retail-based clinics around a patient-centric model, and the success of that model is evident in the results of recent Gallup research.

WOONSOCKET, R.I. CVS Caremark is partnering with nonprofit Direct Relief USA to offer up to $5 million in free flu shots to community clinic and health center patients who lack health insurance, the company announced on Wednesday.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT Take Care Health Systems’ announcement that its Take Care Clinics ranked among the top 10% of all organizations globally in engaging their customers, according to Gallup research, is not only important for Take Care but also for the overall convenient care clinic industry.

(THE NEWS: Gallup: Take Care Clinics tops at customer engagement. For the full story, click here) 

WASHINGTON With unemployment rates remaining at an all-time high, 1-in-5 Americans chose not to seek medical care for a recent illness or injury, with 4-out-of-10 citing cost as the primary factor, according to a Deloitte Center for Health Solutions survey of more than 4,000 adults in the United States released Wednesday.