CVS Drug Stores – CEO Talks about Recession Plans

In part he speaks out about the Minute Clinics not yet paying their way, but they are committed to the long run, believing the clinics will in time contribute to the bottom line. This is an interesting history with the history of CVS and how their current CEO worked his way up to the top of the helm.

CVS acquired Caremark in 2007 and a west coast drug store chain, Longs Drug Stores October. With the combination of both mail and retail pharmacy benefits, they have one big combined operation. They have also invested heavily in technology, so the data bases show which patients are taking their medications by a data trail of prescriptions. With upgrades, the chain will be able to tell if the patient has either quit taking their medications or has switched to another source. The big controversy here is the pharmacy making phone calls to remind patients to refill their medications.

Maintenance Choice is a new offering where patients can order by mail and pick them up at the local CVS store. The cards we all carry for discounts assist in gathering shopping habits as well at the stores. Will picking up prescriptions lead to more purchases with additional foot traffic at the stores, time will tell if the approach ends up feeding the bottom line.

Also on the website, CVS is promoting Google Health with signing up and getting your prescriptions records in to a personal health record. This also applies for visits made to the Minute Clinics as well. Also, records can be transferred to the HealthVault as well. BD

During his 15 years as CEO of CVS (NYSE:CVS - News), Tom Ryan transformed the company from a New England drugstore chain into a national health-care colossus with $76.3 billion in annual sales. He did that through a string of major acquisitions, paying $27 billion for drug middleman Caremark in 2007 and $2.9 billion for West Coast regional chain Longs Drug Stores (NYSE:LDG - News) last October.

CVS/Caremark is now one of the 20 biggest companies in America, surpassing Boeing (NYSE:BA - News), Target (NYSE:TGT - News), and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ - News). The Woonsocket (R.I.) outfit is the largest single buyer and dispenser of prescription drugs in the nation. The Longs deal extends the chain's retail presence from Maine to Hawaii, with nearly 7,000 stores and more than 50 million users of its CVS loyalty card in the U.S.

What does Ryan intend to do with his drugstore empire? His goal, he says, is to help transform America's expensive and often ineffective health-care system. Seeking to take advantage of President Barack Obama's commitment to health-care reform, Ryan wants to use CVS's vast prescription database and burgeoning network of in-store clinics to treat patients with chronic diseases and help keep them out of the hospital, where most medical costs are incurred. "I don't think our health-care system is broken," Ryan says. "We are just spending too much, and it's unproductive."