Content about Healthcare in the United States

WOONSOCKET, R.I. — CVS Caremark’s MinuteClinic has opened three walk-in clinics inside CVS/pharmacy stores in the Asheville, N.C. area, and three additional locations are expected to open by year-end.

The new clinics are located in Arden, Asheville and Hendersonville. Three additional clinics are expected to open by the end of the year in Asheville, Brevard and Waynesville.

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.


On pace to reach about 1,000 clinic locations by 2016 and a robust team of 1,800 nurse practitioners and physician assistants working tirelessly to provide patients convenient access to quality care, MinuteClinic has demonstrated the integral role that it plays not only within CVS Caremark’s healthcare offering but within the entire U.S. healthcare system.


SILVER SPRING, Md. — In partnership with international regulatory and law enforcement agencies, the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday announced it had taken action against more than 4,100 Internet pharmacies that illegally sell unapproved drugs to consumers. Actions taken include civil and criminal charges, seizure of illegal products and removal of offending websites.

WOONSOCKET, R.I. — CVS Caremark’s MinuteClinic has opened three walk-in clinics inside CVS/pharmacy stores in the Cincinnati and Dayton metropolitan areas.

Three more clinics, two in the Cincinnati area and one in Dayton, are expected to open over the next four months with additional locations in both markets anticipated in 2013.

MinuteClinic launched its first retail medical clinics in Ohio in 2006 and now has 33 walk-in clinics inside select CVS/pharmacy stores in the Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus and Dayton markets.

WOONSOCKET, R.I., and OKLAHOMA CITY— MinuteClinic and OU Physicians, Oklahoma's largest physician group with more than 560 doctors, have entered into a clinical affiliation to enhance access to healthcare services in Oklahoma.

The agreement includes four MinuteClinic walk-in medical clinics inside select CVS/pharmacy stores in Edmond, Moore, Mustang and Norman.

Pharmacists got another opportunity this month to show their skills and help ease the healthcare system's growing financial crisis and resource shortage. Will it move the needle on true health reform and the expanding pharmacy practice model?

RALEIGH, N.C. — Kerr Drug has received approval for reaccreditation from the Accreditation Commission for Health Care, making it the first corporate organization to receive approval for ACHC's new Community Retail program, the organization announced.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT — The idea of pharmacists as the most accessible healthcare professionals isn't just some hokey marketing gimmick: It's a readily observable fact, and one that will become increasingly important as retail pharmacies and retail clinics play a greater role on the front lines of care.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT — Just days after Drug Store News reported — once again — that 2012 is proving to be a significant year for the convenient care industry, yet another turn of events further solidified what we’ve been saying for quite some time.

(THE NEWS: Report: South Carolina allowing clinics to enroll as providers in Medicaid. For the full story, click here.)

A cool trillion dollars. That’s what the generic industry said U.S. patients and public and private health plan payers have saved over the last decade by switching from branded to generic prescription drugs at pharmacy counters.

Looked at another way, the Generic Pharmaceutical Association trumpeted in a study released last Thursday that me-too medicines saved a half-billion dollars a day between 2002 and 2011.

BOSTON — Massachusetts lawmakers passed a massive healthcare bill that seeks to control healthcare costs and expands the services of limited-service clinics to allow for anything within the scope of practice for a nurse practitioner.

The legislation, which Gov. Deval Patrick said he would sign into law, includes an array of other cost-curbing provisions and is estimated to save as much as $200 billion in healthcare spending over the next 15 years.