Content about Walgreens pharmacy

CHICAGO — To help improve flu immunization rates in underserved communities, Walgreens and Access Community Health Network on Tuesday announced a collaboration that will provide 5,000 free flu shot vouchers to Access to help those either without health insurance coverage or those unable to afford the vaccination to get their flu shot. 

In a way, Walgreens has always been woven into the fabric of New York City culture — its Times Square location served as the backdrop for Life magazine’s iconic V-J Day photo in 1945. And while Walgreens hit snooze on The City That Never Sleeps for decades, nearly exiting the market in the 1970s, between its grand return to One Times Square in 2008 and its subsequent acquisition of New York’s top regional chain Duane Reade in 2010, it’s almost like it never really left at all.


WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT — It's no secret that something has been afoot for the last few years: Retail pharmacies have gradually metamorphosed from places to pick up pills to destinations for health care — places to get everything from vaccines to care from nurses and even from physicians.

Given retail pharmacies' evolving role, the growing number of employers starting wellness programs has opened up a number of possibilities, which some retail pharmacy companies have already started exploring.

On Jan. 1, Walgreens’ contract with Express Scripts expired, and millions of Walgreens customers covered by ESI were forced to either move their pharmacy business or come up with some other way to stick with Walgreens. Drug Store News interviewed Walgreens president and CEO Greg Wasson on what the company is doing to hold on to those customers and how it is appealing to payers.

NEW YORK — EmblemHealth and Walgreens have reached an agreement that allows EmblemHealth and Connecticare members to continue to have access to the Walgreens pharmacy network in 2012, the companies announced Thursday.

EmblemHealth, through its companies Group Health Incorporated and HIP Health Plan of New York, provides healthcare coverage and administrative services to approximately 2.9 million people, the company said. 

CHICAGO — Walgreens now has certified more than 500 of its pharmacies as HIV Centers of Excellence in communities highly impacted by HIV, as identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the pharmacy operator announced Thursday at the U.S. Conference on AIDS.

DECATUR, Ga. — DeKalb Medical has teamed up with Walgreens pharmacists to help patients understand and comply with medication therapies following treatment at the hospital — a collaborative relationship, which already has in just its first three months of existence, improved patient care and satisfaction, DeKalb reported Thursday.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — MMM Healthcare and PMC Medicare Choice on Friday announced that MMM and PMC members will continue to have access to the Walgreens pharmacy network. Walgreens and Express Scripts have reached an agreement specifically regarding these plans in Puerto Rico, according to a Walgreens spokesperson.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT — In his July 20 letter to benefit consultants, Walgreens president of pharmacy, health and wellness Kermit Crawford made a direct appeal to plan sponsors to either “select a PBM that includes Walgreens” or consider “direct arrangements with plans currently using Express Scripts, to the extent permitted by their contracts.” The letter also included an attached “template agreement that can be used to implement such direct arrangements where permitted,” for consideration.



As the costs of primary care march steadily higher and patients endure ever-longer wait times to see a family physician, the need for accessible, cost-effective patient care alternatives has become both obvious and urgent. 


Enter Walgreens. Armed with new, time-saving 
pharmacy automation tools, a growing offsite-dispensing capability and an array of new adherence and disease-management services, the company heavily is promoting its pharmacists and in-store clinicians as the most cost-effective front-line resource for community-based patient care.