BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Former longtime Walgreens executive George Riedl has been named president of health and wellness at Walmart. He succeeds Labeed Diab, who left Walmart to join Brookdale Senior Living Inc. as chief operating officer. Riedl most recently was president of Advanced Marketing & Sales Inc., an independent sales, marketing and consulting agency focused
NEW YORK — UnitedHealth Group Inc. may pull out of Affordable Care Act health insurance exchanges in 2017 after losing what it said were hundreds of millions of dollars on policies sold under the law. The company, the nation’s largest health insurer, significantly cut its 2015 profit estimates based on losses on individual policies sold
WASHINGTON — Health care spending in the United States last year exceeded $3 trillion as five years of slow growth was replaced by the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of Medicaid and private health insurance coverage. Prescription drug prices accelerated as well. Health care spending grew faster than the economy in 2014, and the federal share
NEW YORK — Despite widespread criticism over the issue of tax inversions, legal experts say that current regulatory restrictions in the United States are unlikely to block the $160 billion merger deal announced by U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and Ireland-based drug manufacturer Allergan Inc. Generally, tax inversions involve a U.S. firm reincorporating in a low-tax
NEW YORK — Americans prefer generic drugs to brands for both prescription and over-the-counter drugs, according to a new Harris Poll. Among those who purchase prescription drugs for themselves, nearly seven in 10 (69%) say, given a choice, they would opt for generics more often. Three in 10 go as far as saying they would
MENOMONEE FALLS, Wis. — Sona Chawla has left Walgreens to join Kohl’s Corp. as chief operating officer, a new position. She reports to chairman, president and chief executive officer Kevin Mansell. Chawla, who had been president of digital and chief marketing officer at Walgreens, joined Kohl’s at the end of last month. She spent seven
VALLEY FORGE, Pa. — AmerisourceBergen Corp. announced last month that Steve Collis, the company’s chief executive officer, will succeed company chairman Richard Gozon next year. The company has also adopted measures to make it easier for certain shareholders to nominate directors to the board. Collis will take on the chairman role following Gozon’s retirement at
TORONTO — Shoppers Drug Mart (SDM) has debuted its sixth and seventh enhanced beautyBOUTIQUE store-within-a-stores in Ottawa and Montreal. The Ottawa boutique was unveiled at a store in the Rideau Centre. The Montreal boutique, named galerieBEAUTÉ, was unveiled in a Pharmaprix unit on Rue Sainte-Catherine. It is SDM’s first enhanced boutique in Quebec. The 4,000-square-foot
NEW YORK — Consumers agree that pharmacies are more than up to the task of providing superior customer service. A recent Gallup poll found that pharmacies and banks are rated the highest for customer service, while clothing and retail stores and fast-food restaurants have a smaller percentage of excellent service scores. Survey participants were asked
WOONSOCKET, R.I. — CVS Health announced a suite of new digital tools last month aimed at helping customers manage their health with more ease and efficiency. The company noted that the new digital tools were developed specifically to address issues facing CVS Health customers. The tools include the following: • Apple Watch app integration —
BOISE, Idaho — As Albertsons weighs staging an initial public offering it had originally planned for October, it is expanding with the purchase of 33 stores it had been forced last year to divest. A federal bankruptcy court last month approved the company’s purchase of the Haggen stores, which Albertsons had sold to win regulatory
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — Sterling Drug, in collaboration with HealthPartners and PharmaSmart, has demonstrated the potential of community pharmacists to reduce hypertension. A six-month pilot program included 270 HealthPartners members who had a diagnosis of hypertension and a prescription at Sterling to lower blood pressure. Members who enrolled received a Smart Card allowing them to routinely
LAKELAND, Fla. — Publix Supermarkets Inc. is offering free 90-day supplies of metformin, lisinopril and amlodipine to pharmacy customers with a prescription for the medications. Previously, 30-day supplies of the medications were offered with a prescription. The program enhancement is being made to assist customers’ medication adherence. The free medications being offered include lisinopril, metformin
The retailing business in the United States may have reached an inflection point during the period around Black Friday, traditionally seen as the start of the holiday selling season. While reports from different sources about retailers’ performance during the last week of November don’t neatly align, the consensus is that e-commerce continues to gain ground
