DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens' comprehensive Complete Care and Well-Being program, launched earlier this month, is seen as a strategy that differentiates from its main rival — CVS Caremark — and attempts to cut into the 90-day script mail-order segment as well as low-cost generic drug programs of other food and drug retailers by driving more traffic to Walgreens stores.
The integrated health delivery program, offered through Take Care Health Systems, a Walgreens subsidiary, is marketed to large corporations, government entities, insurers and managed care organizations. The program combines worksite health centers, in-store clinics and pharmacies with a discount prescription drug offering. Beneficiaries under the program receive a 15% savings on all Walgreens private-label products.
Andrew Wolf, an analyst with BB&T Capital Markets, Richmond, Va., described Walgreens' program as a “holistic approach to lowering health care costs” as opposed to CVS Caremark's Pharmacy Benefit Manager model that manages prescription costs. “CVS Caremark is a vertically integrated, pharmacy-focused model. Walgreens is a horizontal health care delivery model,” he explained.
The program intermediates the Pharmacy Benefit Manager and takes the average $3 that a PBM makes on a script and applies that against lowering an employer's health care costs, said Wolf. Walgreens expects to drive revenue through new customers and traffic from its preferred network, he explained.
