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WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT Underscoring the vital role that pharmacists play in the U.S. healthcare system are the findings of the recent CVS Caremark study, which found many patients believe that their specialty pharmacy team plays an important role in medication adherence. There's a $300 billion reason why this is important.

WOONSOCKET, R.I. New healthcare legislation, the aging U.S. population and a shortage of primary care physicians will equal significant growth for CVS Caremark's MinuteClinic business. In fact, the clinic operator is looking to double its number of in-store clinics within five years, according to a Bloomberg report.

WOONSOCKET, R.I. Research from CVS Caremark demonstrated the positive impact of various tools available to pharmacy benefit management companies, including automated telephonic messaging, fax alerts to physicians about gaps in care and strategic co-pay waivers for generic medications.

The data, which came from three different studies, was presented at the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT A bill that would prohibit federal PBM contracts with companies that operate both a PBM and retail pharmacies not only has sparked debate but, if passed, could be a blow to the vertically integrated pharmacy-PBM model.

(THE NEWS: Bill would prohibit federal PBM contracts with companies operating PBMs, retail pharmacies. For the full story, click here)

WOONSOCKET, R.I. MinuteClinic has named Nancy Gagliano as its new chief medical officer.

"We are thrilled to have Nancy Gagliano join us as our chief medical officer at MinuteClinic," stated Andrew Sussman, M.D., president of MinuteClinic and SVP/associate chief medical officer at CVS Caremark. "Nancy has a superb background in clinical primary care and ambulatory care leadership. She will add great insight and experience to our leadership team as we continue to provide the highest quality care to our patients."

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT CVS Caremark’s Behavior Change Research Partnership with several leading universities is likely to yield some invaluable results for the industry at large because if CVS Caremark executives and the participating academic leaders can better understand customer behavior and develop ways to encourage improved healthy behaviors, then the end result likely will be lower healthcare costs.

February was a busy month for CVS Caremark. First it was a party on Beale Street as the chain announced its entry into Memphis. A week later, it broke out the pina coladas as it cut the ribbon on its first store in Puerto Rico. In January, it was Budweiser in St. Louis.

There are just eight states in which CVS does not operate stores: Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. In drug store retailing, being able to provide coverage “from sea to shining sea” means a lot when you try to sell your services to big healthcare payers.