Walgreens Health Cost Expenditure

Walgreens Health Care Cost Savings

Walgreens provides a broad range of healthcare and clinical services as extensions of
our traditional pharmacy services that support the health needs and cost management
of a population, from high-risk, high-cost conditions to health and wellness support.

Walgreens scope of pharmacy and health care services includes retail, specialty, infusion, mail
service, in-store medical clinics, employer worksite clinics and respiratory services. These services
improve health outcomes and lower overall healthcare costs for payers, including employers,
managed care organizations, health systems, pharmacy benefit managers and the public sector.
Each year, 72 million patients receive pharmacy and health care services from Walgreens.

Walgreens health care services have demonstrated significant cost-savings in five specific areas:

1. Expanding Community Pharmacy Scope of Services

•  Immunizations – Walgreens offers the most extensive in-store immunization program in the industry

today as the nation’s largest provider of flu shots outside of the US government. Last flu season,
Walgreens delivered more than 6 million flu shots at extremely competitive price points, promoting
individual and public health and reducing more acute episodes, especially for seniors and those with
chronic illnesses. Walgreens has more than 26,000 pharmacists certified to provide immunizations.
Providing immunizations to populations at high risk of heart failure, elderly, diabetes and asthma
patients can save $15,000 to $50,000 in hospitalizations, due to complications. In a recent publication
Walgreens was able to demonstrate that our pharmacists increased pneumococcal vaccinations in a
high-risk population 64 percent above traditional care.

• Adherence – Walgreens pharmacies also provide medication adherence services, counseling

and other assistance that lowers medical costs by improving outcomes. These include monthly
adherence calls to inform patients about critical upcoming blood tests that are required to continue
therapy; next-day home delivery for medications; assistance programs to help patients minimize risk
resulting from economic circumstances that may negatively impact therapy compliance; and alerts
for missed doses, at-risk patient behavior or serious adverse side effects that are communicated to
a prescribing physician. We also offer 90-day supplies of medication, further promoting adherence.
Walgreens pharmacists have consistently demonstrated increased adherence to chronic medicines for
high-risk conditions for the populations that we serve. For example, for patients in one study who filled
their statin and thyroid medications at community pharmacies and who consulted with a pharmacist,
a significant improvement in first refill rates resulted (from 55.7 percent to 70.4 percent) after the
adherence program was implemented.

• Screenings – Walgreens stores and Take Care Clinics offer a range of free health testing services,

including blood glucose, A1C hemoglobin levels and blood pressure. A recent published study
showed that patients who engage in wellness activities have an overall healthcare expense of $160
lower than non-participants, with inpatient expenses $183 lower than non-participants. Biometric
screenings allow payers to achieve these cost savings and have real-time data available from
Walgreens that includes adherence to medications, linked to biometric measures.

 About the Walgreens Specialty and Infusion Pharmacy