Pharmacy Help at Walgreens

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Walgreens for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

 

I was at Walgreens the other day and purchased some of their store brand of NICE products.  The prices were low and seemed like it would be a good deal.  Also they have the Redbox out front for movies.  Sure made it convenient for my shopping trip.  As a matter of fact Walgreens has always tried to make things easy on their customers.  Now they are having to do one more step with the Walgreens and Express Script program.  

 

I found out that for the past year, Walgreens has negotiated with Express Scripts for a new contract to continue as part of its pharmacy provider network. Sadly those negotiations were unsuccessful, and the contract expired on Dec. 31. Walgreens is no longer part of Express Scripts’ pharmacy provider network as of Jan. 1, 2012. This includes all Walgreens pharmacies nationwide and Duane Reade pharmacies in the New York City area. Walgreens offered to hold rates for a new contract flat and did not seek an increase in rates. Express Scripts itself has stated that clients will not see any significant savings from excluding Walgreens from its network. One of Express Scripts’ clients is Tricare, which is the health and prescription drug program for America’s military service men and women. Walgreens took the unprecedented step of offering Express Scripts an ironclad guarantee that Walgreens prices would match or beat the average costs per adjusted prescription of all other pharmacies in the Tricare network.

Many patients under an Express Scripts plan have used Walgreens pharmacies for years and have a personal relationship with their Walgreens pharmacist. In an effort to minimize their disruption and inconvenience, Walgreens unveiled a comprehensive national effort to make this transition as smooth as possible and is doing all it can to help patients continue to use Walgreens when possible. Among the steps created to help is the Walgreens Prescription Savings Club. An individual can join during a special January promotion for only $5, or $10 for a family membership, and receive savings on more than 8,000 brand name and all generic medications. More than 400 generics are available with a three-month supply for less than $1 a week. Regular annual membership is $20 for an individual and $35 for a family. This program will keep customers at the pharmacy they know and trust. And stops the middle made in the coverage programs. Many customers will be happy to have this offered to them.

 

If  you are a regular customer of Walgreens and their pharmacy then check out what they are doing to help out.  You can also talk to Walgreens on Twitter and Walgreens on Facebook  Isn't that easy?  I know that I am going to check them out and compare them to my own mail based pharmacy program.  It pays to see where I can save a penny or two at.  After all they all add up don't they!