McKesson completes CoverMyMeds acquisition

SAN FRANCISCO — McKesson on Monday completed its previously announced acquisition of CoverMyMeds for approximately $1.1 billion.



"CoverMyMeds mission is to help patients get access to the appropriate drugs for their care," John Hammergren, chairman and CEO McKesson, told investors at the time of the original announcement in late January. "Their service automates and accelerates the prescription approval process known as electronic prior authorization, which is otherwise manual and time consuming," he said. "CoverMyMeds takes administrative cost out of the system which supports patients through drug adherence, manufacturers by reducing prescription abandonment and providers and payers through automation and appropriate patient access to medications."



CoverMyMeds products streamlines a prior authorization process for 47,000 pharmacies and 700,000 prescribers, Hammergren added, and the company has partnered with McKesson’s RelayHealth Pharmacy business since 2010 to expand its reach and offer its capabilities to a broad customer base. "Together, CoverMyMeds and RelayHealth Pharmacy can develop even more innovative tools for manufacturers, pharmacies, patients, payers and prescribers and continue to take administrative costs and inefficiency out of the healthcare system."