Happy New Year! I hope you all had a safe and wonderful Christmas and a super fun time last night! Not gonna lie, but I was in bed by 11:30. I’m old and sick and can’t hang anymore! Instead of partying and coming up with New Year’s Resolutions, I’m I’m gonna talk about Pharmacies, Insurances, and Mergers! Hotdog it’s gonna be a good day, tater! Let’s begin…

*Aetna and CVS

Da fuq is up with this? I mean, I know that insurances prefer some pharmacies over others, but this is a tad clingy, don’t you think? Cvs is purchasing Atena for $69 Billion, with a ‘B’. The Washington Post posted an article that says this merger will transform CVS (which has also purchased Target’s pharmacies) into more of a “community medical hug” which will save people money in the long run. The article indicates that CVS would try to transition to more of a health facility than a retail one, I guess in the same way Wal-mart and other grocery stores have a pharmacy in them, but focus on other aspects of the business. Whereas a place like Walgreens is a pharmacy with the store around it. The article goes on to discuss how the store will push more of a preventative care model where people can come talk to a pharmacist or nurse in between doctor visits to manage health issues. There is an argument made about lack of competition and choice. Will people with Aetna insurance only have coverage if they go to a CVS facility? There is also a point about the lines people will have to wait in before they can be helped, and that is asking for dissatisfied customers.

This is a crazy, fluctuating world and I just wonder how CVS is going to transition. Are they going to remodel their current stores to accommodate the influx of people that would come to visit their Minute Clinics; or are they just going to build new stores and leave the old ones the way they are? What kind of staffing issues are they going to have? Are they going to hire more pharmacists or techs in order to push that goal of preventative healthcare, which can only be done by actually talking to the patient? Lord knows that when the pharmacist steps out of the pharmacy, literally no progress can be made, so how is CVS going to circumvent that? I feel for the employees of CVS. I work in a retail pharmacy, and when you see Corporate shaking things up and making huge changes, but they don’t give you the resources to either implement those changes, it’s kinda frightening.  What do you think? Are you concerned about what these changes are going to look like? Or are you excited about the possibility of merging different aspects of health care? Let me know, and until then stay informed!