WOONSOCKET, R.I. — CVS Caremark Corp.’s MinuteClinic unit now offers care across the country to members of Tricare, the health insurance program for military personnel (including retirees) and their families.

MinuteClinic has reached an agreement with TriWest, the Western region plan contractor for Tricare. Through TriWest, Tricare provides health care insurance services to 2.9 million people in the Western region of the United States, including those living in six western states (Arizona, California, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri and Nevada) where MinuteClinic operates walk-in clinics inside select CVS/pharmacy stores.

MinuteClinic already has contracts in place with Health Net (Tricare’s North region contractor) and Humana Military (the South region contractor), so this agreement means the clinic operator can offer care to Tricare members nationwide.

“As we look to add approximately 100 clinics a year nationwide over the next four years, this is an important development in the growth of our business and patient care in these states,” said Dr. Andrew Sussman, president of MinuteClinic and senior vice president and associate chief medical officer at CVS Caremark. “By offering high-quality treatment in a convenient setting, we can work with Tricare to help reduce military families’ health care insurance expenses, as well as reducing the amount of time they spend away from home and the workplace.”

As part of the expansion program Sussman mentioned, MinuteClinic has just opened its first walk-in clinics inside CVS stores in the Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio, metropolitan areas. The three new clinics mean that MinuteClinic now has clinics in 33 CVS stores in Ohio. It opened its first retail medical clinics in the state in 2006, focusing initially on Cleveland and Columbus.

Sussman says three more clinics — two in the Cincinnati area and one in Dayton — are scheduled to open in the next four months. More outlets in each market are planned next year.

“We believe MinuteClinic can be part of the solution to help broaden access to high-quality, convenient and affordable health care services in southwest Ohio and elsewhere in the state, Sussman says.