INSIGHTS AND PERSPECTIVES

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT If Medicare Part D is to remain solvent in the future, then lawmakers may want to take a closer look at the more than 10% of spending on drugs under the program that has gone toward specialty drugs — some of the most expensive drugs on the market — and find ways to come up with cheaper alternatives.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT CVS Caremark’s Behavior Change Research Partnership with several leading universities is likely to yield some invaluable results for the industry at large because if CVS Caremark executives and the participating academic leaders can better understand customer behavior and develop ways to encourage improved healthy behaviors, then the end result likely will be lower healthcare costs.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT The news that CVS Caremark is making an investment to integrate its five pharmacy benefit management units isn’t really a big surprise and, in fact, could have some industry observers wondering what took this well-oiled acquisition machine so long.

(THE NEWS: Report: CVS Caremark to merge PBM units. For the full story, click here)

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT While the decision to move in this direction may have been made before Chong Bang crossed the border, there is no questioning that industry watchers will be focused on what SDM's new top merchant will do to further improve the stores.

(THE NEWS: Shoppers Drug Mart takes a page out of CCR playbook. For the full story, click here)

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT For the second year in a row, Raleigh, N.C.-based Kerr Drug has earned high marks from a major health provider network for its ability to deliver effective medication therapy management to its patients. Considering that MTM is critical to the future of pharmacy as a real, patient-centered healthcare profession instead of merely a dispenser of medications, Kerr’s efforts — and recognition by Outcomes Pharmaceutical Health Care for those efforts — are a timely step in the right direction.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT Is the merger agreement between Walgreens and Duane Reade another sign of rampant chain drug consolidation and attrition, or just a bold and long-expected move by two of the industry’s premier practitioners?

(THE NEWS: Walgreens to acquire Duane Reade. For the full story, click here)

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT CVS Caremark's partnership with Polk County, Fla., and the implementation of a program to educate and motivate members to engage in their health care is clearly important on several different levels, including the fact that it scores the value of pharmacists' intervention in disease management.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT Simply put, if you take a significant number of retail pharmacies out of the Medicaid equation, it won’t be too long before overall healthcare expenditures begin skyrocketing.

(THE NEWS: Representing NACDS, Civello asks Obama to maintain emergency Medicaid funding. For the full story, click here)