For the past 12 months the National Association of Chain Drug Stores and its president and chief executive officer, Steve Anderson, have been actively engaged in fighting on the front lines in the battle over health care reform.
The biggest retailers got stronger, but all in all the chain drug sector turned in an impressive performance in 2009. CVS Caremark Corp.
Leaders of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores underscored the group’s value to members and its ability to influence public policy by communicating pharmacy’s and suppliers’ work to improve lives and society in remarks at the 2010 NACDS Annual Meeting.
Rite Aid Corp. plans to deploy Dream Machine bottle and can recycling kiosks as part of a recycling initiative by PepsiCo and Waste Management Inc. The drug store chain is one of the first national retailers to sign on to the program, starting with 150 kiosks in its North Carolina locations. Under
Better Health Beverage’s underWAY appetite-suppressing beverage is now available at Discount Drug Mart locations across Ohio.
An article that appeared in The New England Journal of Medicine earlier this month is being hailed by the National Association of Chain Drug Stores for helping to drive home the organization’s message that community pharmacists play a key role in helping reduce long-term health care costs.
After nine months of discussions with the pharmacy community about how to reduce the government’s costs, Ontario’s health ministry has decided that the best way to accomplish those savings is to slash the reimbursement rate paid to pharmacies when they dispense generic drugs.
While Canada’s largest drug chains have traditionally been reluctant to take on provincial governments publicly, their reaction to Ontario’s plan to reduce the pharmacy reimbursement rate on prescriptions filled with generic drugs by 50% was quick and to the point.
Walgreen Co.’s more than 7,100 pharmacies and 350 Take Care Clinics administered over 7.4 million seasonal flu shots and H1N1 immunizations during this past flu season.
After nearly four years without a permanent administrator, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is getting a new leader. President Obama has nominated Donald Berwick, a pediatrician known for his work to improve patient care, as the next CMS administrator.
Pseudoephedrine products should stay over the counter, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) and Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA) have told Congress.
CVS Caremark Corp.’s MinuteClinic division has introduced several health condition monitoring services aimed at patients with a variety of chronic conditions.
John Spina, vice president of retail integration and new format development at Walgreen Co., will continue to oversee the company’s integration of Duane Reade Inc.
Kinney Drugs has restructured its merchandising department, promoting Cheri Taylor to division manger of health and beauty care and making Mike Hatch, who had previously overseen the 94-store chain’s health and beauty efforts, division manager of general merchandise.
Rite Aid Corp. drug stores are offering free full-body screenings for skin cancer as part of the Skin Cancer Foundation’s “Road to Healthy Skin” tour. Rite Aid Corp.
Walgreen Co. is among the corporations that will take an accounting charge because of health care reform’s reduction of tax deductions for retiree drug coverage. Walgreens said it anticipates a charge of some $40 million to deferred taxes in the third quarter of fiscal 2010.
