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Walgreen Continues March Into Health-Care Delivery

Posted By Jacob Goldstein On March 18, 2008 @ 9:09 am In PBMs, Pharmacists, Retail Clinics | 4 Comments

Walgreen may be on its way to your office. The drug store chain is buying its way into the business of providing on-site health care for employers.

Walgreen execs said yesterday that the company's buying a shop called I-trax for about $260 million and another company called Whole Health Management for an undisclosed amount, the WSJ reports.

Like its archrival CVS, Walgreen is no longer content with its retail business selling prescriptions, over-the-counter drugs and a random assortment of groceries and novelty items. Walgreen and CVS have both been busy opening retail clinics to provide health care in their stores. And last year, CVS merged with the giant pharmacy benefits manager to get into the business of managing companies' prescription drug benefits.

After the deal goes through, Walgreen will have more than 500 health centers, including both its existing retail clinics and the on-site health centers its buying, the WSJ says. I-trax provides worksite health services for more than 160 employers, including familiar names such as Lowe's and Toyota. Whole Health Management has work site centers for Continental Airlines and Sprint Nextel Corp., among others.

The deal could mean that some people will have not only a doctor down the hall from where they work, but also a whole Walgreens store. "Is there also an opportunity longer-term to have Walgreens outposts in some of these corporate facilities?" an analyst asked on a conference call yesterday, according to a transcript from Thomson Financial. "Yes," CEO Jeff Rein answered. "It's not just on the medical side of course, but it is on the pharmacy side. It could be on the OTC side. There could be other opportunities, particularly when people are so rushed for time."

Walgreens Neon Sign by puroticorico via Flickr

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Article printed from Health Blog: http://blogs.wsj.com/health