Take Care ads target payers and patients
DEERFIELD, Ill. —You don’t have to look far to find the solutions that today’s robust retail pharmacy business model is providing for both employers and consumers to help save on health care. Just check your daily newspaper.
Within the past few weeks, Take Care Health Systems, owned by Walgreens, presented healthcare cost-saving opportunities that cut across both sides of its business. In the April 1 edition of the Wall Street Journal, Take Care promoted its comprehensive Employer Solutions, promising to save employers more than $2 to $4 for every $1 spent on Take Care. And in the March 31 edition of USAToday, Take Care advertised its Take Care Recovery Plan—a “we’ve got your back” exclusive offering from Take Care and Walgreens. Under the plan, if a Take Care customer loses his or her job and insurance coverage this year, Take Care will provide its free care to that customer and his or her immediate family for the remainder of the year.
“As healthcare costs continue to soar and financial pressures increase, it may seem like only a matter of time before what’s best for your company becomes somehow at odds with what’s best for your employees,” read the WSJ ad. “No matter how you choose to work with us, our goal remains the same: provide completely integrated and customized health care that proactively optimizes employee health and reduces corporate costs.”
“In today’s economic climate, saving money on the cost of healthcare services alone is not enough,” stated Hal Rosenbluth, Walgreens SVP and president of the health-and-wellness division. “Employers, managed care organizations and insurers have been seeking more easily understood pricing for prescription drugs and healthcare services for some time now, and Walgreens is delivering on that request.”
Take Care launched its Complete Care and Well-Being employer-based initiative in January, a program that brings to bear Take Care’s corporate clinic and health centers, Walgreens’ pharmacies and Walgreens Health Initiatives, the company’s PBM, all to help alleviate corporate healthcare costs.
Complete Care and Well-Being combines worksite health centers, in-store clinics and pharmacies to a company’s employees, dependents and retirees. In addition, beneficiaries under the plan receive a 15% savings on Walgreens store brand products.
Meanwhile, on the convenient care side, the appeal to consumers, who continue to fear the worst as the rates of the unemployed continue to rise, is unmistakable.
“Losing your job doesn’t have to mean losing your health care,” opens the ad in USAToday.
“Walgreens and Take Care Health Systems will not stand idly by as individuals are forced by the hardships of the economy to choose among basic necessities, such as health care, housing and food,” said president and CEO Greg Wasson.
While it does not cover the cost of a prescription or OTC remedy, it does enable an unemployed/uninsured Take Care customer to seek treatment. “It includes the assessment and diagnosis of the patient,” Lauren Nestler, Take Care spokeswoman, told Drug Store News. “Quest Diagnostics is covering free laboratory testing services for conditions that our nurse practitioners can’t test for at the clinic.”
“[With this program] we think we have the potential to deliver millions [of dollars] in free care,” Nestler said.