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Rite Aid to purchase EnvisionRX
- Thread starter TheDude559
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What does this mean for pharmacists?
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Rite Aid certainly has been on the aggressive front in the last year acquiring that Texas based minute clinic chain and now as a PBM...still with so much outstanding debt I'm surprised they're able to 'afford' these avenues.
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I think this move is another step on the way towards squeezing independents out of the retail business. Envision will undoubtedly try to steer business towards Rite-Aid on the PBM contracting side, just like Caremark does for CVS with preferred networks, copay reductions, etc.
Plus on the other side you have the chains using their buying power to partner with wholesalers like Walgreens with AmerisourceBergen to get drugs way cheaper than any independent can. The PBMs are on to this as well so they reduce reimbursement to match these levels. But the independents get squeezed again, because sometimes the reimbursement is less than their cost. Just see that Harvoni thread from a while ago.
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when RiteAid bought Eckard, they went underwater. now venturing on to pbm, its a bad investment. they should've open more n more n lots more minute clinics. what's a better way to sell drugs than to prescribe those prescriptions as well? thats twice the money making per customer.
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Not really... buying a PBM is the future of most retail chains and an easy way for Rite Aid to find synergy in many ways and increase sales.
Opening minute clinics is harder because that is "building" up another business... but I see that happening in their future also.
CVS "Health"'s business model is so successful that I can not imagine other chains not doing it.
The truth is most prescriptions being filled is no longer profitable unless you do it in volume, and you have specialty drugs. Having a PBM helps you achieve that...
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Yup, filling prescriptions is not profitable unless you are filling very high volumes, or filling what I call "quality" prescriptions, which I mean as very profitable prescriptions like specialty drugs, oncology drugs, antipsychotics, etc.
I see Rite-Aid becoming the next CVS. The way the company has been handling things in the past year is remarkable. I believe they are headed in a very good direction. My RxSup who worked with CVS for 15 years left last year to go to Rite Aid. She was the smartest business woman I met. For her to leave what she was doing, and go to Rite-Aid, I thought to myself, "Why is she going to a company that's dying?". Well here we are year later and Rite Aid is getting stronger and stronger. I really do think it's going to be the next CVS.
I see Rite-Aid becoming the next CVS. The way the company has been handling things in the past year is remarkable. I believe they are headed in a very good direction. My RxSup who worked with CVS for 15 years left last year to go to Rite Aid. She was the smartest business woman I met. For her to leave what she was doing, and go to Rite-Aid, I thought to myself, "Why is she going to a company that's dying?". Well here we are year later and Rite Aid is getting stronger and stronger. I really do think it's going to be the next CVS.
