This post brought to you by Walgreens. All opinions are 100% mine.
Imagine your favorite pharmacy. The quickness of service they provide, the ability to get it accurate, their friendliness, their overall attitude in serving you as a customer as their number one GOAL!
Then it all comes crashing down due to the fact that one of their network providers Walgreens and Express Scripts has been unable to reach an agreement with each other. So now you have to go across town, which cost you more in gas, perhaps you have to find another pharmacist or even change your doctor. Wow what a mess this causes you in time and anxiety!
This is NOT an agreement that Walgreens is proud of nor endorses. They would have loved for express script to remain one of their primary providers. This includes all Walgreens pharmacies nationwide and Duane Reade pharmacies in the New York City area.
Now patients are forced to drive farther, wait longer and deal with the inconveniences of finding another provider for their medication and refills. Also as a result some prescriptions are costing more and patients are having to deal with a new pharmacist as well. Imagine yourself in this situation. Not fun at all of course and frustrating as well. Below are some things that Walgreens did to attempt to continue a working relationship with Express Script:
- Did not ask for a rate increase in medication or refills
- Prescription Savings Club at Walgreens (a special discount)
- Offered savings through 90 day supplies
- Offered an increase in savings by proposing using even more generic drug prescriptions
- And much much more to alleviate any pain to the consumer
Update Below
Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Walgreen Co. is willing to resume selling prescriptions to Express Scripts Inc. customers after the end of their contract Dec. 31 forced millions of consumers to switch pharmacies, Walgreen’s pharmacy-services chief said.
“We’ve always been willing to remain in the Express Scripts network, but it has to be at a rate which is fair for the value that we provide,” Kermit Crawford, president of Walgreen’s pharmacy, health and wellness services, said today in a telephone interview.
Walgreen, the largest U.S. drugstore chain, offered “significant cost concessions” in mid-December negotiations with Express Scripts from an earlier proposal to keep reimbursement rates flat for the next three years, Crawford said. He supervises Walgreen’s negotiating team and reports to Chief Executive Officer Greg Wasson.
Express Scripts “did not accept that offer and actually suggested pushing negotiations into the new year,” said Crawford, 52. “So I would say the ball is in their court. We are actually not waiting to hear from them. We’ve made the decision to move on.”
Express Scripts is open to an agreement with Walgreen, Brian Henry, an Express Scripts spokesman, said in an e-mail. Still, Walgreen wants to be paid more than other pharmacies, he said.
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