CVS » Topics » Pharmacy Services Segment

This excerpt taken from the CVS 8-K filed May 5, 2009.

Pharmacy Services Segment

The following table summarizes the Pharmacy Services Segment’s performance for the respective periods:

 

     (Unaudited)
Fiscal Quarter Ended(1)
 

In millions

   March 31,
2009
    March 29,
2008
 

Net revenues

   $ 11,534.8     $ 10,764.7  

Gross profit

     791.8       788.0  

Gross profit % of net revenues

     6.9 %     7.3 %

Operating expenses

     306.0       258.0  

Operating expense % of net revenues

     2.7 %     2.4 %

Operating profit

     485.8       530.0  

Operating profit % of net revenues

     4.2 %     4.9 %
                

Net revenues:

    

Mail service

   $ 3,955.0     $ 3,647.1  

Retail network

     7,498.2       7,023.8  

Other

     81.6       93.8  

Pharmacy claims processed:

    

Total

     163.4       156.8  

Mail service

     15.7       15.3  

Retail network

     147.7       141.5  

Generic dispensing rate:

    

Total

     67.7 %     64.1 %

Mail service

     55.5 %     52.8 %

Retail network

     68.8 %     65.2 %

Mail order penetration rate(2)

     23.0 %     23.1 %
                

 

(1) On December 23, 2008, our Board of Directors approved a change in our fiscal year end from the Saturday nearest December 31 of each year to December 31 of each year to better reflect our position in the health care, rather than the retail, industry. As you review our operating performance, please consider that the fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2009 and March 29, 2008 include 90 days and 91 days, respectively.

 

(2) Excluding the impact of RxAmerica and Maintenance Choice™, the mail order penetration rate would have been 25.8% for the first quarter of 2009, compared to 23.1% in the first quarter of 2008.


This excerpt taken from the CVS 10-K filed Feb 27, 2009.

Pharmacy Services Segment

The Pharmacy Services business provides a full range of prescription benefit management (“PBM”) services including mail order pharmacy services, specialty pharmacy services, plan design and administration, formulary management and claims processing. Our customers are primarily employers, insurance companies, unions, government employee groups, managed care organizations and other sponsors of health benefit plans and individuals throughout the United States. In addition, through our SilverScript Insurance Company (“SilverScript”) and Accendo Insurance Company (“Accendo”) subsidiaries, we are a national provider of drug benefits to eligible beneficiaries under the Federal Government’s Medicare Part D program. Currently, the pharmacy services business operates under the Caremark Pharmacy Services®, Caremark®, CVS Caremark™, CarePlus CVS/pharmacy™, CarePlus™, RxAmerica®, AccordantCare® and TheraCom® names. As of December 31, 2008, the Pharmacy Services segment operated 58 retail specialty pharmacy stores, 19 specialty mail order pharmacies and 7 mail service pharmacies located in 26 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia.

Our Strategy ~ Our business strategy centers on providing innovative pharmaceutical solutions and quality customer service in order to enhance clinical outcomes for the participants in our customers’ health benefit plans while assisting our customers in better managing their overall health care costs. We believe the Caremark Merger has positioned our company to deliver significant benefits to health plan sponsors through effective cost-management solutions and innovative programs and to consumers through expanded choice, improved access and more personalized services.

Our Services ~ The PBM services we provide for our customers involve the design and administration of programs aimed at reducing the cost and improving the safety, effectiveness and convenience of prescription drug use. These services are described more fully below.

Plan Design and Administration ~ Our customers sponsor pharmacy benefit plans which facilitate the ability of eligible participants in these plans to receive medications prescribed by their physicians. We assist our customers in designing pharmacy benefit plans that minimize the costs to the customer while prioritizing the welfare and safety of the customers’ participants. We also administer these benefit plans for our customers and assist them in monitoring the effectiveness of these plans through frequent, informal communications as well as through a formal annual customer review.

We make recommendations to our customers encouraging them to design benefit plans promoting the use of the lowest cost, most clinically appropriate drug. We believe that we help our customers control costs by recommending plans that encourage the use of generic equivalents of brand name drugs when such equivalents are available. Our customers also have the option, through plan design, to further lower their pharmacy benefit plan costs by setting different participant payment levels for different products on our drug lists.

Formulary Management ~ We utilize an independent panel of doctors, pharmacists and other medical experts, referred to as our Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee, to select drugs that meet the highest standards of safety and efficacy for inclusion on our drug lists. Our drug lists provide recommended products in numerous drug classes to ensure participant access to clinically appropriate alternatives under the customer’s pharmacy benefit plan. To improve clinical outcomes for participants and customers, we conduct ongoing, independent reviews of all drugs, including, but not limited to, those appearing on the drug list and generic equivalent products, as well as of our clinical programs.

Discounted Drug Purchase Arrangements ~ We negotiate with pharmaceutical manufacturers to obtain discounted acquisition costs for many of the products on our drug lists, and these negotiated discounts enable us to offer reduced costs to customers that choose to adopt our drug lists. The discounted drug purchase arrangements we negotiate typically provide for our receiving discounts from established list prices in one or a combination, of the forms. In that regard, these discounts generally take the form of a direct discount at the time of purchase, a discount for prompt payment of

 

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invoices or, when products are indirectly purchased from a manufacturer (e.g., through a wholesaler or retail pharmacy/chain), a retroactive discount, or rebate. We also receive additional discounts under our wholesale contracts if we exceed contractually-defined annual purchase volumes. We record these discounts, regardless of their form, as a reduction of our cost of revenues.

Prescription Management Systems ~ We dispense prescription drugs both directly, through our own pharmacies, and indirectly, through a network of retail pharmacies. All prescriptions, whether they are filled through one of our mail service pharmacies or through a pharmacy in our retail network, are analyzed, processed and documented by our proprietary prescription management systems. These systems assist staff and network pharmacists in processing prescriptions by automating tests for various items, including, but not limited to, plan eligibility, early refills, duplicate dispensing, appropriateness of dosage, drug interactions or allergies, over-utilization and potential fraud.

Mail Pharmacy Program ~ We currently operate 7 large, automated mail service pharmacies in the continental United States, including one located in Largo, Florida, that we expect to consolidate during 2009. Our customers or their physicians submit prescriptions, primarily for maintenance medications, to these pharmacies via mail, telephone, fax or the Internet. We also operate a network of smaller mail service specialty pharmacies described below. Additionally, we operate a United States Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) regulated repackaging facility in which we repackage certain drugs into the most common prescription amounts dispensed from our automated mail service pharmacies. Our staff pharmacists review mail service prescriptions and refill requests with the assistance of our prescription management systems. This review may involve communications with the prescribing physician and, with the physician’s approval, can result in generic substitution, therapeutic interchange or other actions to affect cost or to improve quality of treatment. In these cases, we inform participants about the changes made to their prescriptions.

Specialty Pharmacy ~ Our specialty pharmacies support individuals that require complex and expensive drug therapies. Our specialty pharmacies are comprised of 19 specialty mail order pharmacies located throughout the United States and are used for delivery of advanced medications to individuals with chronic or genetic diseases and disorders. One of our mail service specialty pharmacies, TheraCom®, provides new product launch services for manufacturers of specialty drugs. Substantially all of these pharmacies have been accredited by the Joint Commission, which is an independent, not-for-profit organization which accredits and certifies more than 15,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States. The Company also operates a network of 58 retail specialty pharmacy stores (which operate under the Caremark, CarePlus™ or CVS/pharmacy name). These stores average 2,000 square feet in size and sell prescription drugs and a limited assortment of front store items such as alternative medications, homeopathic remedies and vitamins.

Onsite Pharmacies ~ We also operate a limited number of small pharmacies located at client sites under the CarePlus CVS/pharmacy, CVS/pharmacy or CarePlus™ name, which provide participants with a convenient alternative for filling their prescriptions.

Retail Pharmacy Network ~ We maintain a national network of approximately 60,000 retail pharmacies including CVS/pharmacy and Longs Drug stores. When a customer fills a prescription in a retail pharmacy, the pharmacy sends prescription data electronically to us from the point-of-sale. This data interfaces with our proprietary prescription management systems, which verify relevant customer data, including eligibility and participant information, and perform a drug utilization review to determine clinical appropriateness and safety in addition to confirming that the pharmacy will receive payment for the prescription.

Quality Assurance ~ We have adopted and implemented clinical quality assurance procedures as well as policies and procedures to help ensure regulatory compliance under our quality assurance programs. Each new mail service prescription undergoes a sequence of safety and accuracy checks and is reviewed and verified by a registered pharmacist before shipment. We also analyze drug-related outcomes to identify opportunities to improve the quality of care.

Disease Management Programs ~ Our clinical services utilize advanced protocols and offer customers convenience in working with health care providers and other third parties. Our AccordantCare health management programs include integrated disease management, which includes 27 diseases such as asthma, coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, diabetes, hemophilia, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. The majority of these integrated programs are accredited by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (“NCQA”), a private, not-for-profit organization that evaluates, accredits and certifies a wide range of health care organizations.

 

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Medicare Part D Services ~ We participate in the administration of the drug benefit added to the Medicare program through Part D of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (“MMA”) (the “Medicare Drug Benefit”) through the provision of PBM services to our health plan clients and other clients that have qualified as Medicare Part D prescription drug plans (“PDP”). We also participate (i) by offering Medicare Part D pharmacy benefits through our subsidiaries, SilverScript and Accendo, which have been approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”), as PDPs, and (ii) by assisting employer, union and other health plan clients that qualify for the retiree drug subsidy available under Medicare Part D by collecting and submitting eligibility and/or drug cost data to CMS in order for them to obtain the subsidy. During 2008, our PharmaCare Management Services subsidiary, through a joint venture with Universal American Corp. (“UAC”), also participated in the offering of Medicare Part D pharmacy benefits by affiliated entities of UAC that qualified as PDPs. The Company and UAC dissolved this joint venture at the end of the 2008 plan year and have divided responsibility for providing Medicare Part D services to the affected UAC plan members beginning with the 2009 plan year.

Information Systems ~ We currently operate primary information systems platforms to support our PBM services, which are supplemented by additional information systems to support our pharmacy operations. These information systems incorporate integrated architecture that centralizes the data generated from filling mail service prescriptions, adjudicating retail pharmacy claims and fulfilling other customer service contracts.

Customers ~ Our customers are primarily sponsors of health benefit plans (employers, unions, government employee groups, insurance companies and managed care organizations) and individuals located throughout the United States. We provide pharmaceuticals to eligible participants in benefit plans maintained by our customers and utilize our information systems to perform safety checks, drug interaction screening and generic substitution. We generate substantially all of our Pharmacy Services Segment net revenue from dispensing prescription drugs to eligible participants in benefit plans maintained by our customers. During the year-ended December 31, 2008, we managed over 633 million prescriptions for individuals from over 3,300 organizations.

Competition ~ We believe the primary competitive factors in the industry include: (i) the ability to negotiate favorable discounts from drug manufacturers; (ii) the ability to negotiate favorable discounts from, and access to, retail pharmacy networks; (iii) responsiveness to customers’ needs; (iv) the ability to identify and apply effective cost management programs utilizing clinical strategies; (v) the ability to develop and utilize preferred drug lists; (vi) the ability to market PBM products and services; (vii) the commitment to provide flexible, clinically-oriented services to customers; and (viii) the quality, scope and costs of products and services offered to customers and their participants. The Pharmacy Services segment competes with a number of large, national PBM companies, including Medco Health Solutions, Inc. and Express Scripts, Inc., as well as many smaller local or regional PBMs. We also compete with several large health insurers/managed care plans (e.g. UnitedHealthcare, Wellpoint, Aetna, CIGNA) and retail pharmacies, which have their own PBM capabilities, as well as with several other national and regional companies which provide services similar to ours.

This excerpt taken from the CVS 10-K filed Feb 27, 2008.

Pharmacy Services Segment

The Pharmacy Services business provides a full range of prescription benefit management (“PBM”) services including mail order pharmacy services, specialty pharmacy services, plan design and administration, formulary management and claims processing. Our customers are primarily employers, insurance companies, unions, government employee groups, managed care organizations and other sponsors of health benefit plans and individuals throughout the United States. In addition, through our SilverScript Insurance Company (“SilverScript”) subsidiary, we are a national provider of drug benefits to eligible beneficiaries under the Federal Government’s Medicare Part D program. Our specialty pharmacies support individuals that require complex and expensive drug therapies. Our pharmacy services business operates a national retail pharmacy network with over 60,000 participating pharmacies (including CVS/pharmacy stores). We also provide health management programs, which include integrated disease management for 27 conditions through our Accordant® health management offering. The majority of these integrated programs are accredited by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (the “NCQA”). Currently, the pharmacy services business operates under the Caremark Pharmacy Services®, PharmaCare Management Services® and PharmaCare Pharmacy® names. As of December 29, 2007, the Pharmacy Services segment operated 56 retail specialty pharmacy stores, 20 specialty mail order pharmacies and 9 mail service pharmacies located in 26 states and the District of Columbia. Specialty pharmacy stores average 2,000 square feet in size and sell prescription drugs and a limited assortment of front store items such as alternative medications, homeopathic remedies and vitamins.

Our Strategy ~ Our business strategy centers on providing innovative pharmaceutical solutions and quality customer service in order to enhance clinical outcomes for the participants in our customers’ health benefit plans while assisting our customers in better managing their overall healthcare costs. We believe that our focus on management of our customers’ overall healthcare costs, our mail service, specialty pharmaceutical and health management expertise and the breadth and quality of our product and service offerings (which are expected to be significantly enhanced as a result of the Caremark Merger) distinguish us from many of our competitors.

Our Services ~ The PBM services we provide for our customers involve the design and administration of programs aimed at reducing the cost and improving the safety, effectiveness and convenience of prescription drug use.

Plan Design and Administration ~ Our customers sponsor pharmacy benefit plans which facilitate the ability of eligible participants in these plans to receive medications prescribed by their physicians. We assist our customers in designing pharmacy benefit plans that minimize the costs to the customer while prioritizing the welfare and safety of the customer’s participants. We also administer these benefit plans for our customers and assist them in monitoring the effectiveness of these plans through frequent, informal communications as well as through a formal annual customer review.

We make recommendations to our customers encouraging them to design benefit plans promoting the use of the lowest cost, most clinically appropriate drug, including generics when available. We believe that we help our customers control costs by recommending plans that encourage the use of generic equivalents of brand name drugs when such equivalents are available. Our customers also have the option, through plan design, to further lower their pharmacy benefit plan costs by setting different participant payment levels for different products on our drug lists.

Formulary Development ~ We utilize an independent panel of doctors, pharmacists and other medical experts, referred to as our Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee, to select drugs that meet the highest standards of safety and efficacy for inclusion on our drug lists. Our drug lists provide recommended products in numerous drug classes to ensure participant access to clinically appropriate alternatives under the customer’s pharmacy benefit plan. To improve clinical outcomes for participants and customers, we conduct ongoing, independent reviews of all drugs, including, but not limited to, those appearing on the drug list and generic equivalent products, as well as of our clinical programs.

 

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Discounted Drug Purchase Arrangements ~ We negotiate with pharmaceutical manufacturers to obtain discounted acquisition costs for many of the products on our drug lists, and the customers that choose to adopt our drug lists receive reduced costs from these negotiated discounts. The discounted drug purchase arrangements we negotiate typically provide for our receiving discounts from established list prices in one, or a combination, of the following forms. These discounts may take the form of a direct discount at the time of purchase, a discount for prompt payment of invoices or, when products are indirectly purchased from a manufacturer (e.g., through a wholesaler or retail pharmacy/chain), a retroactive discount, or rebate. We also receive additional discounts under our wholesale contracts if we exceed contractually-defined annual purchase volumes. We record these discounts, regardless of their form, as a reduction of our cost of revenues.

Prescription Management Systems ~ We dispense prescription drugs both directly, through our own pharmacies, and indirectly, through a network of third party retail pharmacies. All prescriptions, whether they are filled through one of our mail service pharmacies or through a pharmacy in our retail network, are analyzed, processed and documented by our proprietary prescription management systems. These systems assist staff and network pharmacists in processing prescriptions by automating tests for various items, including, but not limited to, plan eligibility, early refills, duplicate dispensing, appropriateness of dosage, drug interactions or allergies, over-utilization and potential fraud.

Mail Pharmacy Program ~ We currently operate 9 large, automated mail service pharmacies in the continental United States. Our customers or their physicians submit prescriptions, primarily for maintenance medications, to these pharmacies via mail, telephone, fax or the Internet. We also operate a network of 20 smaller mail service specialty pharmacies located throughout the United States and used for delivery of advanced medications to individuals with chronic or genetic diseases and disorders. Substantially all of the mail service specialty pharmacies have been accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (“JCAHO”). Additionally, we operate a United States Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) regulated repackaging facility in which we repackage certain drugs into the most common prescription amounts dispensed from our automated mail service pharmacies. Our staff pharmacists review mail service prescriptions and refill requests with the assistance of our prescription management systems. This review may involve communications with the prescribing physician and, with the physician’s approval, can result in generic substitution, therapeutic interchange or other actions to affect cost or to improve quality of treatment. In these cases, we inform participants about the changes made to their prescriptions.

CareCenter® Pharmacies ~ We also operate a limited number of CareCenter pharmacies located at client sites, which provide participants with a convenient alternative for filling their prescriptions.

Retail Pharmacy Program ~ Our retail pharmacy program typically allows customers to fill prescriptions at more than 60,000 pharmacies nationwide (including CVS/pharmacy stores). When a customer fills a prescription in a retail pharmacy, the network pharmacist sends prescription data electronically to us from the point-of-sale. This data interfaces with our proprietary prescription management systems, which verify relevant customer data, including eligibility and participant information, perform drug utilization review to determine clinical appropriateness and safety and confirm that the pharmacy will receive payment for the prescription.

Quality Assurance ~ We have adopted and implemented clinical quality assurance procedures as well as policies and procedures to help ensure regulatory compliance under our quality assurance programs. Each new mail service prescription undergoes a sequence of safety and accuracy checks and is reviewed and verified by a registered pharmacist before shipment. We also analyze drug-related outcomes to identify opportunities to improve the quality of care.

Health Management Programs ~ Our clinical services utilize advanced protocols and offer customers convenience in working with healthcare providers and other third parties. Our AccordantCare® health management programs include integrated disease management, which includes over 20 diseases such as asthma, coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, diabetes, hemophilia, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. The majority of these integrated programs are accredited by the NCQA.

 

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Information Systems ~ We currently operate primary information systems platforms to support our PBM services, which are supplemented by additional information systems to support our pharmacy operations. These information systems incorporate integrated architecture that centralizes the data generated from filling mail service prescriptions, adjudicating retail pharmacy claims and fulfilling other customer service contracts.

Customers ~ Our customers are primarily sponsors of health benefit plans (employers, unions, government employee groups, insurance companies and managed care organizations) and individuals located throughout the United States. We dispense pharmaceuticals to eligible participants in benefit plans maintained by our customers and utilize our information systems to perform safety checks, drug interaction screening and generic substitution. In addition, we are a national provider of drug benefits to eligible beneficiaries under the federal government’s Medicare Part D program. We generate substantially all of our net revenue from dispensing prescription drugs to eligible participants in benefit plans maintained by our customers. During the year ended December 29, 2007, we managed over 490 million prescriptions for individuals from over 4,000 organizations, and our largest customer, the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, accounted for approximately 7% of our Pharmacy Services segment net revenue.

In 2005, we were approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) to participate in the drug benefit added to the Medicare program through Part D (“Medicare Drug Benefit”) of the MMA. We participate in the administration of the Medicare Drug Benefit through the provision of PBM services to our health plan clients and other clients that have qualified as Medicare Part D prescription drug plans. Caremark also participates (i) by offering Medicare Part D pharmacy benefits through its subsidiary, SilverScript, which has been approved by CMS as a prescription drug plan under Medicare Part D in all regions of the country, and (ii) by assisting employer, union and other health plan clients that qualify for the retiree drug subsidy available under Medicare Part D by collecting and submitting eligibility and/or drug cost data to CMS in order for them to obtain the subsidy. In addition, PharmaCare, through a joint venture with Universal American Insurance Corp., also participates in the offering of Medicare Part D pharmacy benefits by affiliated entities of Universal American that have qualified as Medicare Part D prescription drug plans. In February 2008, the Company and Universal American agreed to dissolve this joint venture at the end of the 2008 plan year and to divide responsibility for providing Medicare Part D services to the affected Universal American plan members beginning with the 2009 plan year. The terms of this agreement are subject to regulatory approval.

Competition ~ We believe the primary competitive factors in the industry include: (i) the ability to negotiate favorable discounts from drug manufacturers; (ii) the ability to negotiate favorable discounts from, and access to, retail pharmacy networks; (iii) responsiveness to customers’ needs; (iv) the ability to identify and apply effective cost management programs utilizing clinical strategies; (v) the ability to develop and utilize preferred drug lists; (vi) the ability to market PBM products and services; (vii) the commitment to provide flexible, clinically-oriented services to customers; and (viii) the quality, scope and costs of products and services offered to customers and their participants. The Pharmacy Services segment competes with a number of large, national PBM companies, including Medco Health Solutions, Inc. and Express Scripts, Inc. as well as many smaller local or regional PBMs. We also compete with several large health insurers/managed care plans (e.g. Wellpoint, Aetna, CIGNA) and retail pharmacies, which have their own PBM capabilities, as well as with several other national and regional companies which provide services similar to ours.

 

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