WALGREENS

PALO ALTO, Calif. — HP this week announced that customers can now print directly from their smartphone or tablet to more than 8,000 Walgreens stores through the HP Public Print Locations network.

By downloading the free HP ePrint Service iPhone app, users can order prints of their photos and pick those photos up from a local Walgreens in as little as an hour.

“A drug store in the palm of your hand.” That’s what Walgreens calls the fast-growing suite of health and pharmacy services now available from many retail pharmacies to Americans with smartphones.

Technology vendors, pharmacies and other health providers are keeping pace with a slew of interactive health offerings.  For proof, one need look no further than the nation’s biggest drug store retailers.

NEW YORK — Duane Reade, which is owned by Walgreens, has increased Duane Reade brand hosiery sales by close to 20% thanks to a seven-week social media campaign launched in November to raise awareness of those products — produced by Doris Hosiery Mills.

Amid an unusually strong flu season that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has called an epidemic, supplies of flu vaccines are running low, and some people hoping to get immunized are having trouble finding them.

PALO ALTO, Calif. — Aisle411 last week announced their Indoor Location Geo-Fence Alerts API was being showcased in the Aisle411 Android application at Las Vegas-area Walgreens stores. 

Walmart's Arkansas Payment Improvement Initiative aims to create a more patient-centered and cost-efficient payment system for the retailer's home state. 

The latest move by Walmart is as sure an indication as any that health care is becoming less about fee-for-service and more about basing compensation on ratings derived from patient outcomes.

DEERFIELD, Ill. — The board of directors of Walgreens on Thursday declared a regular quarterly dividend of 27.5 cents per share, a 22.2% increase over the year ago dividend. The dividend is payable March 12, 2013, to shareholders of record Feb. 15, 2013.

Walgreens has paid a dividend in 321 straight quarters (more than 80 years) and has raised its dividend for 37 consecutive years. Over the last five years, Walgreens annual dividend rate has increased from 38 cents per share to $1.10 per share, resulting in a compound annual growth rate of nearly 24%.

Walgreens chief Greg Wasson had a new vision to share with the pharmacy operator's faithful shareholders for 2013. It was a vision that firmly placed the Express Scripts dispute in the rear-view mirror and refocused on the road ahead, that includes expanding the role of pharmacy and even what it means to be a U.S. pharmacy operator with its acquisition of Alliance Boots.