Omnicare Layoffs?

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VA77

VA77

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  1. Pharmacist
I saw this too! I too am curious to find out if this is a sign of things to come in cvs pharmacies next
 
I don't know why CVS bought them. Omnicare employees were happy as clams until they came and ruined things. CVS enforced their stupid metrics and cut cut cut hours. The deliveries were late due to the skeleton crew. Nursing homes got pissed and didn't renew their contracts. Idiots.
 
Litha said:
Might be a regional thing. When I worked there, about half of our lost contracts went to pharmerica, and the other half split among a few independent ltc's in the area.
Click to expand...

PharMerica is clearly the better option as far as customer service and and generally getting the job done right.
 
is Cvs completely clueless? they could care less about customer service, but in an area dictated by contracts. service and execution is essential. neither is possible with bare bones staffing
 
MatCauthon said:
is Cvs completely clueless? they could care less about customer service, but in an area dictated by contracts. service and execution is essential. neither is possible with bare bones staffing
Click to expand...

I wonder. There is still quite a bit of fat in LTC compared to retail and I am not surprised CVS would want to squeeze as much as possible out of it. It’s easy to sit back and criticize but I wonder what the bottom line really looks like. It would be really interesting to know the actual numbers.

Don’t get me wrong I hated working for CVS but I never accused them of not being able to make money. It’s possible they misjudged how they needed to run their LTC side or it is possible omnicare will learn to adjust to running a more lean operation. Perhaps their clients will learn to have lowered expectations as well. My bet is that it will be the second one.
 
MatCauthon said:
is Cvs completely clueless? they could care less about customer service, but in an area dictated by contracts. service and execution is essential. neither is possible with bare bones staffing
Click to expand...

Yes. They can give 2 sh*ts about customer service in retail cause the customers will still go there. Some have no choice due to their health insurance or lack of competition in the area. You can't do that in LTC.
 
owlegrad said:
I wonder. There is still quite a bit of fat in LTC compared to retail and I am not surprised CVS would want to squeeze as much as possible out of it. It’s easy to sit back and criticize but I wonder what the bottom line really looks like. It would be really interesting to know the actual numbers.

Don’t get me wrong I hated working for CVS but I never accused them of not being able to make money. It’s possible they misjudged how they needed to run their LTC side or it is possible omnicare will learn to adjust to running a more lean operation. Perhaps their clients will learn to have lowered expectations as well. My bet is that it will be the second one.
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some of my friends work in ltc and gave me the inside scoop on their company. it was bought by cvs, but cvs screwed it up so badly that they lost all the contracts with local nursing homes. cvs sold back the company at a discount to the original owners after ruining the business. they can't survive if they lose their contracts. plus their bullying monopoly tactics don't work as well in ltc which isn't as consolidated as retail. there are still many smaller ltc independent companies that are quite adaptable and can out compete cvs on service execution. plus they aren't dumping all their profits into paying corporate debt, share buybacks, or exorbitant ceo salaries.
 
There was even a lawsuit against Omnicare/CVS that resulted from the staff cuts and metrics leading to "shoddy" services.

www.mcknights.com

Lawsuit alleges Omnicare ‘alienated’ 100+ nursing homes following sale - News - McKnight's Long Term Care News

A lawsuit is accusing Omnicare and its parent CVS of “alienating” more than 100 skilled nursing and assisted living facilities in Southern California by delivering allegedly shoddy services following an acquisition of one pharmacy provider.
www.mcknights.com www.mcknights.com
 
PharmtoCS said:
There was even a lawsuit against Omnicare/CVS that resulted from the staff cuts and metrics leading to "shoddy" services.

www.mcknights.com

Lawsuit alleges Omnicare ‘alienated’ 100+ nursing homes following sale - News - McKnight's Long Term Care News

A lawsuit is accusing Omnicare and its parent CVS of “alienating” more than 100 skilled nursing and assisted living facilities in Southern California by delivering allegedly shoddy services following an acquisition of one pharmacy provider.
www.mcknights.com www.mcknights.com
Click to expand...

Also this one, which I can personally attest happened:

www.mcknightsseniorliving.com

Omnicare, CVS Health plan ‘vigorous' defense against fraud lawsuit involving 3,000 senior living communities - News - McKnight's Senior Living

Long-term care pharmacy services company Omnicare and parent CVS Health Corp. said Tuesday that they will “vigorously defend” themselves against a federal civil lawsuit alleging that Omnicare fraudulently billed federal healthcare programs “for hundreds of thousands” of "stale" or invalid...
www.mcknightsseniorliving.com www.mcknightsseniorliving.com

This company is such a train wreck.
 
Litha said:
Also this one, which I can personally attest happened:

www.mcknightsseniorliving.com

Omnicare, CVS Health plan ‘vigorous' defense against fraud lawsuit involving 3,000 senior living communities - News - McKnight's Senior Living

Long-term care pharmacy services company Omnicare and parent CVS Health Corp. said Tuesday that they will “vigorously defend” themselves against a federal civil lawsuit alleging that Omnicare fraudulently billed federal healthcare programs “for hundreds of thousands” of "stale" or invalid...
www.mcknightsseniorliving.com www.mcknightsseniorliving.com

This company is such a train wreck.
Click to expand...

What the hell is CVS’s problem. The leadership in CVS are a bunch of disgusting slobs and they should be fired. Such disgusting greed that can not be reconciled with compassion/respect.

I have downright had it with what greed has done to our healthcare system. It has spiraled our if control.
 
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Litha said:
Also this one, which I can personally attest happened:

www.mcknightsseniorliving.com

Omnicare, CVS Health plan ‘vigorous' defense against fraud lawsuit involving 3,000 senior living communities - News - McKnight's Senior Living

Long-term care pharmacy services company Omnicare and parent CVS Health Corp. said Tuesday that they will “vigorously defend” themselves against a federal civil lawsuit alleging that Omnicare fraudulently billed federal healthcare programs “for hundreds of thousands” of "stale" or invalid...
www.mcknightsseniorliving.com www.mcknightsseniorliving.com

This company is such a train wreck.
Click to expand...

"Instead of obtaining new prescriptions from residents’ physicians after the old ones had expired or exhausted their refills, the lawsuit alleges, Omnicare assigned a new number to each old prescription and continued dispensing drugs for months or years after the prescriptions had expired. The practice was followed from 2010 to 2018 until Omnicare and CVS learned of the federal investigation, the government said."

Hmm, CVS bought Omnicare in 2015 and this has been going on since 2010?
 
mentos said:
I don't know why CVS bought them. Omnicare employees were happy as clams until they came and ruined things. CVS enforced their stupid metrics and cut cut cut hours. The deliveries were late due to the skeleton crew. Nursing homes got pissed and didn't renew their contracts. Idio
Click to expand...

What form did the metrics take? My friend, from the time of the transition mentioned all orders had to be cleared, even ones that weren't due the next morning and after hours, and backup pharmacies, needed everyday, had to be CVS. What's going on their now?
 
clarkbar said:
What form did the metrics take? My friend, from the time of the transition mentioned all orders had to be cleared, even ones that weren't due the next morning and after hours, and backup pharmacies, needed everyday, had to be CVS. What's going on their now?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure. I have a co-worker who was laid off from Omnicare after CVS bought them and that's what he told me.
 
clarkbar said:
What form did the metrics take? My friend, from the time of the transition mentioned all orders had to be cleared, even ones that weren't due the next morning and after hours, and backup pharmacies, needed everyday, had to be CVS. What's going on their now?
Click to expand...
Not sure about now, but the when transition first occurred they implement a lot of stupid metrics. They monitored how quickly we answered phone calls, how many people were available for phone calls, on-time deliveries (ex: if delivery time is 7pm, but we get it out the door by 7:05pm it was considered late), percentage of meds send to non-CVS first-dose pharmacies, percentage of out-of-stock orders we had, number of items still in the queue at the end of the day, overtime hours..... BS.
 
Which one of those metrics is BS though? Answering calls quickly is customer service. Getting things sent out on time is customer service. Out of stocks is a measure of service. Overtime is $$$.

If you think those metrics are BS you should see what the retail side has to put up with.
 
owlegrad said:
Which one of those metrics is BS though? Answering calls quickly is customer service. Getting things sent out on time is customer service. Out of stocks is a measure of service. Overtime is $$$.

If you think those metrics are BS you should see what the retail side has to put up with.
Click to expand...
I agree but metrics do not take into account mitigating factors.I work retail and it is very rare not to have some tech issues at a terminal, register,label printer.Everytime my boss bitches at the metrics I always invite him to fast forward the pharmacy camera and make suggestions on how we can improve. He never bothers.It is just easier to bitch or write someone up
 
What makes metrics BS is not just what is measured, but what is done with the results of these measurements. If someone looks at metrics and adjusts staffing/environment/support/computers/whatever to make it better - it's an appropriate use of metrics. If someone looks at metrics but no improvements are made, metric are only used to have something to write someone up if needed or pit stores against one another - then any metrics, however relevant, become BS.
 
Hels2007 said:
What makes metrics BS is not just what is measured, but what is done with the results of these measurements. If someone looks at metrics and adjusts staffing/environment/support/computers/whatever to make it better - it's an appropriate use of metrics. If someone looks at metrics but no improvements are made, metric are only used to have something to write someone up if needed or pit stores against one another - then any metrics, however relevant, become BS.
Click to expand...
I would add that often the job becomes about "beating the metrics" where you don't actually improve anything but you put processes in place to prevent the metrics from being accurately collected/reported. Used to see it all the time at CVS. Never put anything into out of stock status, just put it to the side and order it for the next day. Answer the phone as soon as it rings but put the person on hold immediately. Then you end up wasting time becasue getting around the metrics is more work than just using the system the way it was designed.

Uh sorry, I am having nightmare flashbacks to retail.
 
mentos said:
I don't know why CVS bought them. Omnicare employees were happy as clams until they came and ruined things. CVS enforced their stupid metrics and cut cut cut hours. The deliveries were late due to the skeleton crew. Nursing homes got pissed and didn't renew their contracts. Idiots.
Click to expand...

I think it’s easy to answer why CVS bought them. They thought they could make money and at the time they (incorrectly) thought the price was right.

I think the question you mean is why did Omnicare shareholders approve the buyout if there was more runway. If the big Omnicare shareholders thought it was a successful growing business why were they shopping the business around long before CVS came in. You can have very happy employees when your business is failing if you refuse to make any tough business decisions that would negatively impact your employees. Long term care pharmacy is an absolutely brutal business where there are a lot of corners cut to stay in the black and further to generate profit. Shame (?) on CVS for not doing better diligence to understand that as being the behemoth legal/regulatory corporate target of CVS you’d get crucified for cutting corners. So instead of cutting corners on all the compliance, they had to cut even more corners on service and payroll.

The much bigger surprise is why they haven’t spun it off to a private equity firm yet for pennies on the dollar. At some point it just becomes an operational and investment relations nuisance that you’re consistently reminded about.
 
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