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This is another way CVS and Walgreens are adding health services to their stores to keep people coming in, with more and more dollars being spent online...SmileDirectClub has opened six locations inside CVS stores to fit people’s teeth for invisible aligners...Walgreens has opened an Aspen Dental office in one of its Florida stores in December...You can already get checked and treated for strep throat at many drugstores. You can now get your teeth cleaned and straightened at some...People are shopping more online. That’s a problem for drugstores, so Walgreens and CVS are getting creative...It all boils down to trying to diversify what they’re offering in the front of the store...

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc will pay $269.2 million to settle two whistleblower lawsuits accusing it of civil fraud for overbilling federal healthcare programs over a decade, the U.S. Department of Justice said...The pharmacy chain will pay $209.2 million to resolve claims it improperly billed Medicare, Medicaid and other federal programs from 2006 to 2017 for hundreds of thousands of insulin pens it dispensed to patients it knew did not need them...Walgreens will also pay $60 million to resolve claims it overcharged Medicaid from 2008 to 2017 by failing to disclose and charge the discount drug prices it offered the public through its Prescription Savings Club program...Two pharmacists filed the original complaint concerning the insulin pens in July 2015. A copy of that complaint could not immediately be obtained on Tuesday...Marc Baker, who worked for Walgreens for a decade as a pharmacy manager in Florida, filed the original complaint concerning the drug price discounts in January 2012.

Wellman is a professor of pharmacy at Ferris State University College of Pharmacy, where he co-launched a dual PharmD/MBA concurrent program...Wellman believes that today a PharmD/MBA degree is essential in preparing students for leadership positions in a wide variety of industries, including retail chain pharmacy, managed care, hospitals and pharmaceutical firms...“Any of the principles that are part of business apply to being a pharmacist,” Wellman said. “We need to be a financial manager, a human resources manager and an operations manager since there are a lot of legal and regulatory components because we work in complex medication distribution systems.”...Pharmacists also have the responsibility to oversee pharmacy techs, which Wellman said means pharmacists need to understand labor laws and different aspects of managing employees equitably...the new crop of pharmacy students need more than just clinical expertise, thanks to changes in reimbursement models and the expansion by many pharmacy retail chains into health centers and clinics...Pharmacy schools are realizing that the traditional business overviews they provide students is simply not enough, and they are stepping up to the plate offering dual PharmD/MBA programs.

Pharmacists rank third in Gallup’s 2018 survey of honesty and ethical standards, maintaining their consistently strong showing in the annual measure of diverse professions. Health-related professions swept the top three, with nurses ranking first and medical doctors ranking second – just one percentage point ahead of pharmacists...“We want to thank pharmacists for their trusted work as the face of neighborhood healthcare, which is reflected consistently in Gallup’s survey,” NACDS president and CEO Steve Anderson said...“Just as Americans walk into their pharmacies for access to quality care, policymakers turn to these professionals for advice on pressing issues. These issues include addressing the opioid abuse epidemic, reducing patients’ out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs, and improving access to care through newer pharmacist-provided services.”

Walgreens Boots Alliance shareholders have instructed the company to explain how it’s monitoring and managing risks related to the opioid crisis, according to preliminary results announced...at Walgreens’ annual shareholders meeting...The measure requires Walgreens to prepare a report by June 30 detailing any changes the company has made to its corporate governance since 2012 in response to the opioid crisis. Investors want more specifics, including how Walgreens’ board oversees opioid-related programs and whether executive bonuses consider any opioid-related objectives like promoting ethical conduct...Walgreens’ board opposed the proposal, saying it already discloses how it’s handling the issue...Drugmakers, distributors and pharmacies have all come under scrutiny for their role in the crisis...Lax prescribing and monitoring of prescription painkillers is widely seen as fueling opioid addiction. Now these companies face lawsuits from thousands of state and local governments.

CVS announced...that Walmart pharmacies are leaving its network because of a dispute over pricing...Both Walmart and CVS are saying that the other company is trying to make prescriptions more expensive for consumers...CVS said it has asked Walmart to stay in its networks through April 30...Walmart is one of the largest pharmacy chains in the United States with about 4,600 locations, but CVS said that the matter will not considerably impact its financial results. Less than 5 percent of affected CVS Caremark members use only Walmart to fill their prescriptions...

More and more, specialty drugs carrying eye-popping price tags are winning FDA approvals. While more are certainly on the way—look at Novartis' recent presentation that a gene therapy could be worth millions per patient—analysts at drug pricing website GoodRx have tallied up the most expensive pharmacy-dispensed drugs in the U.S. per month as of November...Some are marketed by small pharma companies such as Vyera Pharmaceuticals, while top biotechs and pharmaceutical companies market others. Some have seen controversy, while others are lesser known. Rare disease meds make up much of the list, while some treatments such as those for hepatitis C treat diseases that affect millions of people...

A seven-year venture between tech giant Microsoft Corp and the US pharmacy retail chain Walgreens Boots Alliance is expected to bring competition to the healthcare sector on the back of lower costs...In a deal signed recently – which will see Walgreens use Azure, Microsoft’s cloud-computing platform – the companies signalled their common ambition to take on Amazon.com Inc, another tech giant disrupting the healthcare space...Walgreens will roll out 12 new “digital health corners” for its US stores this year, which have been designed to promote the sale of health-related devices and to help patients manage chronic diseases...The deal will help Walgreens accumulate personalised data about patients’ health, which it said will allow pharmacists to give customised nutrition and wellness solutions using digital devices and apps as well as in-store expert advice...

Rite Aid is at risk of being delisted from the New York Stock Exchange and considering a reverse stock split to prop its share price above $1 to comply with the exchange's trading rules...Shares of the drugstore chain have fallen 64 percent over the past year, down to 75 cents a share as of Thursday's close from $2.11 on Jan. 3, 2018 (2019). Rite Aid's stock has hovered under $1 per share over the past month, breaking the NYSE's rule. The exchange notified Rite Aid on Thursday that its average share price was too low and placed its stock at risk of delisting...Rite Aid has six months from the Jan. 3 notice to boost its average share price above $1 for a month.

Walgreens has undertaken a partnership to bring Aspen Dental-branded dental offices to two of its locations in Florida. The companies said the collaboration is aimed at helping transform Walgreens’ stores into health destinations that improve healthcare access in convenient settings...The companies held a “floss-cutting” ceremony at a location in Palatka, Fla. On Dec. 13, with the second Aspen Dental at Walgreens location set to open in the second quarter of 2019. The Aspen Dental office will offer free new patient exams and X-rays for patients without insurance and will feature an onsite denture lab to quickly turnaround custom dentures, repairs, relines or adjustments...