CVS Caremark Ready to Support Patients and Payors Through Coming Era of Health Care Expansion

NEW YORK, Oct. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CVS Caremark (NYSE: CVS) is leading the private-sector effort to address health care cost and quality issues, with several recently introduced initiatives now set to deliver long-term value, Chairman and CEO Tom Ryan, President and Chief Operating Officer Larry Merlo and other senior executives will report at the company's 2010 analyst meeting in New York City today.

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The company's recent investments in new approaches to advanced pharmacy care are at the heart of CVS Caremark's strategic plan to increase its leadership in and contributions to the areas of pharmacy services and health care, Ryan said.

The company estimates that the 32 million Americans who will be covered by the federal expansion of health coverage will generate upwards of 200 million prescriptions a year. This increase in demand for innovative pharmacy services will coincide with an increased demand overall for health care services, with 55 million Americans reaching or surpassing the age of 65 by 2015. At the same time, nearly $90 billion of branded drugs are scheduled to go off patent between 2010 and 2016, increasing CVS Caremark's opportunity to advance the use of generics, a key driver of both improved health outcomes and cost savings. With nearly $300 billion spent annually on health issues related to medication non-adherence, the company's approach to increasing adherence will further demonstrate the value of advanced pharmacy care.

In the area of primary care, CVS Caremark's MinuteClinic network of retail health clinics is projected to remain the far-and-away leader of its sector and the company also will describe its plans to expand MinuteClinic through 2015 to meet the expected increase in demand for primary care.

"We are excited by the enormity of the opportunity to deliver on the health care community's shared goal of improving Americans' quality of life through care that is more innovative, easier to access and more cost-effective," Ryan said. "The role of the pharmacist is evolving, and our innovative solutions like Pharmacy Advisor and Maintenance Choice are great examples of how our pharmacists will have an expanded role in managing chronic disease for our customers and our plan members."

Ryan and other executives plan to highlight several key components of the company's integrated approach to meeting the country's long-term health care needs:

• Pharmacy Advisor: This new program harnesses the power of one-on-one consultations with pharmacists to help PBM plan members improve their health by increasing adherence and reducing gaps in care.  Following a successful pilot phase, the program already has 7.8 million CVS Caremark PBM plan members set to start in January 2011.
• Maintenance Choice: This program allows plan sponsors and plan members the opportunity to receive the savings typically associated with mail-order pharmacy whether members receive their 90-day maintenance medications by mail or at a local CVS/pharmacy location. By adding more convenience to the savings of mail-order pharmacy, Maintenance Choice is improving prescription adherence, thereby reducing unnecessary medical complications.
• Health IT: The company has invested in advanced technologies that today help consumers find the most cost-effective medication for their conditions, avoid negative drug interactions and improve their prescription adherence. These recent investments also have increased efficiency.
• Pharmacogenomics: CVS Caremark's innovative approach to genetic testing to determine appropriate therapies will match patients with the right drugs.
• MinuteClinic: With patient visits to MinuteClinic continuing to grow, the company's network of retail health clinics is expanding its capacity to deliver proactive and preventative treatments including routine monitoring for health conditions like asthma and diabetes.

"Whether we are advising a health plan with hundreds of thousands of covered lives or an individual patient at a CVS/pharmacy or MinuteClinic location, we are in a position to deliver significant value as access to health care increases," Merlo said. "Patients and payors alike continue turning to us for our innovative approaches to their health care needs."

About CVS Caremark

CVS Caremark is the largest pharmacy health care provider in the United States. Through our integrated offerings across the entire spectrum of pharmacy care, we are uniquely positioned to provide greater access, to engage plan members in behaviors that improve their health, and to lower overall health care costs for health plans, plan sponsors and their members. CVS Caremark is a market leader in mail order pharmacy, retail pharmacy, specialty pharmacy, and retail clinics, and is a leading provider of Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Plans. As one of the country's largest pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs), we provide access to a network of more than 64,000 pharmacies, including approximately 7,100 CVS/pharmacy® stores that provide unparalleled service and capabilities. Our clinical expertise includes one of the industry's most comprehensive disease management programs. General information about CVS Caremark is available through the Company's Web site at http://info.cvscaremark.com/.

SOURCE CVS Caremark