This might stand to make some Blue Cross 
members a little happier as this dispute affected their ability to use Walgreens that went into effect on January 2, 2012. There was even talk about Walgreens selling health insurance one day so that’s a wait and see and I wonder if so, which insurer will be first:)
Anthem Blue Cross Members Will No Longer Be Able to Fill Prescriptions at Walgreens After January 1, 2012
If you read the news today about United’s quarterly performance here’s an example of one of their subsidiaries which is now Optima that Express Scripts uses for their analytics to predict who may not be taking their medications, as through subsidiaries they get a little cut of the action everywhere you turn today.
Express Scripts- New Program to Contact and Predict Patients Who May Not Be Taking Their Medicine Based On Ingenix Algorithms–We Want the Revenue Please Don’t Stop
Walgreens may have a bit of a battle to get some customers back as this article states that many moved on to CVS stores. If that doesn’t work, there’ alcohol to sell too.
Walgreens Applying For and Getting Liquor Licenses Across the US – Be Healthy and Get Your Alcohol Here Too
A few weeks ago we had the story in the UK with Walgreens becoming an international drug store with the partial purchase of Boots and an option to buy in later for the entire chain.
Walgreens to Invest in Alliance Boots Drug Chain in Europe With Option to Buy in Full in 3 Years
Walgreen also spent $438 million to buy a 144-store chain focused in the mid-South from the privately held Stephen L. LaFrance Holdings Inc. BD
CHICAGO — Walgreen, the nation’s largest drugstore chain,
agreed on Thursday to renew its relationship with the prescription benefit manager Express Scripts, opening the door for hundreds of thousands of customers to return in September for discounts and related benefits from their Express Scripts drug cards. The dispute cost Walgreens more than $4 billion in annual revenue, analysts estimate, and set off a steep decline in Walgreen’s share price.
Terms of the new agreement were not disclosed.
The dispute over payments began in June 2011 and led to a parting of the ways at the beginning of the year. Customers had to switch to another pharmacy, or pay more for drugs if they continued to use Walgreen.
Since the two parted ways, analysts say Express Scripts gained more leverage this year when it bought a rival drug benefit manager, Medco Health Solutions, bringing tens of millions more Walgreen prescriptions under Express Scripts drug management.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/20/business/walgreen-and-express-scripts-settle-their-dispute.html?_r=1
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