Walgreens and Arizona Priority Care Announce Collaboration for Population Health Management

DEERFIELD, Ill. & CHANDLER, Ariz. & MARINA DEL REY, Calif., June 18, 2014

WALGREENS AND ARIZONA PRIORITY CARE ANNOUNCE COLLABORATION FOR POPULATION HEALTH MANAGEMENT

Walgreens pharmacists and Healthcare Clinic nurse practitioners collaborate with Arizona Priority Care physicians in a model aimed at improving patient care and quality outcomes

Walgreens (NYSE: WAG) (Nasdaq: WAG), the nation’s largest drugstore chain, and 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 AzPC 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., CEO of AzPC. “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 AzPC 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 and adherence programs
• Health risk assessments and health testing, including cholesterol and blood pressure
• Immunizations
• Patient education and wellness services

ABOUT AzPC:

AzPC is on the cutting edge of the accountable care model of healthcare delivery: coordinated, patient-doctor centric, integrated health care systems that represent the future of health care in the United States. AzPC provides high quality, cost effective healthcare to individuals and is dedicated to quality, affordable health care, and putting patients' wellness first. (http://www.azprioritycare.com)

ABOUT Walgreens

As the nation's largest drugstore chain with fiscal 2013 sales of $72 billion, Walgreens (www.walgreens.com) vision is to be the first choice in health and daily living for everyone in America, and beyond. Each day, Walgreens provides more than 6 million customers the most convenient, multichannel access to consumer goods and services and trusted, cost-effective pharmacy, health and wellness services and advice in communities across America. Walgreens scope of pharmacy services includes retail, specialty, infusion, medical facility and mail service, along with respiratory services. These services improve health outcomes and lower costs for payers including employers, managed care organizations, health systems, pharmacy benefit managers and the public sector. The company operates 8,209 drugstores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Take Care Health Systems is a Walgreens subsidiary that is the largest and most comprehensive manager of worksite health and wellness centers, provider practices, and in-store convenient care clinics, with more than 750 locations throughout the country.

Media Contact for AzPC:
Janet Janjigian
janjigianj@carmengroup.com
or
Media Contact for Walgreens:
Jim Cohn, 847-315-2950
jim.cohn@walgreens.com
or
Dan Zacchei, 212-446-1882
dzacchei@sloanepr.com