Walgreens, Heritage Provider Network sign clinical care collaboration agreement

Walgreens (NYSE: WAG) (Nasdaq: WAG), the nation's largest drugstore chain, and global health care leader Heritage Provider Network (HPN), along with its Arizona operating affiliate Arizona Priority Care (AzPC), today announced a clinical care collaboration agreement. The agreement will provide coordinated, expanded services for AzPC Medicare Advantage and ACO members through select Walgreens pharmacies and Healthcare Clinics.

The collaborative model brings Walgreens pharmacists and Healthcare Clinic nurse practitioners together with AzPC providers to further coordinate patient care, while giving AzPC members access to a broad range of health care services at select Walgreens. The program aims to improve patient care while reducing overall costs.

"Coordinated care programs are vitally important to help ensure patients have access to the quality care they need, especially in today's health care environment," said Jeffrey Kang, M.D., Walgreens senior vice president of health and wellness services and solutions. "Walgreens brings an expansive retail footprint and diverse portfolio of health care assets and services, and HPN has long been a leader in providing accountable, coordinated care to its members. This collaboration further demonstrates the value we provide in partnering with others in the medical community to close critical gaps in care to help further improve patient outcomes."

"We see this collaboration with Walgreens as part of our ongoing strategy of seamlessly providing better ways to keep our members healthy, while lowering health care costs," said Richard Merkin, M.D., President and CEO of HPN. "This relationship will allow our Arizona members to conveniently access community-based health care services at select Walgreens locations. We see this as a model for how affordable health care could be more effectively delivered in the U.S., and we are proud to be piloting this type of innovative effort with Walgreens."

Walgreens and HPN will collaborate on a number of clinical and preventive health services aimed at extending physicians' efforts to provide high quality population health services with the support of Walgreens pharmacy and medication management services. Some of the collaborative services offered to AzPC members include:

• Medication management - includes medication therapy management, adherence programs and post-discharge transition management
• Medicare member assessments and health testing, including cholesterol and blood pressure
• Immunizations
• Patient education and wellness services