If you have kept up on the news of the last couple of weeks, it’s move like this that start consumers thinking about where they get their drugs and looking for alternatives.  Granted both chains have many locations and offer convenience, but when the game keeps changing all the time, consumers start to look for some stability, that is if it is possible to find today.

Walgreens is trying to increase revenue by applying for liquor licenses all over the US.  Below is a little history in case you missed the battle. 

Walgreens and CVS Feud Continues and Now Could Affect Where Consumers Can Get Their Prescriptionsimage

Also don’t forget about the pharmacists at Walgreens being on pay for performance now from United Healthcare too.  If you are on the border of what they determine of developing diabetes, they will have your number and will be actively soliciting your participation if you have employer insurance for a wellness program, pharmacists will be paid to enroll you, so I think some of the pharmacy battles going on are created from new areas of health insurance companies and their incentives provided, you think?

UnitedHealthCare To Use Data Mining Algorithms On Claim Data To Look For Those At “Risk” of Developing Diabetes – Walgreens and the YMCA Benefit With Pay for Performance Dollars to Promote and Supply The Tools

United is busy too with acquisitions in other areas, done via subsidiaries so to the average consumer that doesn’t read up, these are things to be aware of.  You can read the link below and see part of the action as this will stand to allow them to help Chinese drug and device companies compete with ours in the US, as this is the focus here, not to necessarily help US companies with locations overseas as they already have FDA pathways in place.  You can see how all the data regarding cost is all being combined and who knows, someday the Chinese products may be the ones approved due to cost versus the ones US companies produce.  If I were a drug or device company, I would perhaps keep a close watch here.

UnitedHealth subsidiary (Ingenix Subsidiary I3) Acquires ChinaGate – Working to Sell Chinese Products Globallyimage

In essence, this all comes down to money and control and we are doctors and patients basically are getting what big corporations feel they want to shell out, and if we get better in the process then they can declare a victory, and if not, well we are just another statistic that they feed to the government, who by the way uses the figures provided via United Healthcare too and you can read about it at the link below, the government and HHS trust these folks if you can believe that.  Think about that if you are one of the individuals who is filing a claim for 15 years worth of under payments from United, the algorithms to pay less ran for that amount of time and there are more lawsuits pending. 

"Reach for the Top" Program Combines Prototype from Ingenix (A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of United Healthcare) for Public/Private Community Health Data on HHS.Gov Site

In the meantime the drug retailers we deal with will also be subject to additional decisions as the health insurance industry continues to bear down on further ways to save money and this is the basis of a lot of the battles created today as a result of their contracts, such as these 2 retailers.  The formularies from the insurance companies control what the drug suppliers get paid.  BD   

CVS Caremark Corp. and Walgreen Co., embroiled in a bitter disagreement the past week-and-a-half, said Friday that had reached a compromise under which Walgreen will remain in CVS Caremark's pharmacy-benefit-management network.

Financial terms of the deal between drugstore operator Walgreen and CVS Caremark, which also runs a drugstore chain, weren't disclosed.

If no settlement had been reached, participants in CVS Caremark-administered plans would no longer be able to fill their prescriptions at Walgreen and its recently acquired Duane Reade stores. Interruptions for some would have begun next month.

In the near term, the risks for both companies seem to have been averted. "CVS and Walgreen realized there was a lot to lose and cooler heads prevailed," said Andrew Wolf, analyst at BB&T Capital Markets.

CVS Caremark,Walgreen Settle Spat - WSJ.com

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