This depends on the Caremark plan. You need to understand the complex convoluted system these insurers have built where there are hundreds of different Caremark plans and they function differently. Just because you have dealt with a couple that do not force mail order does not mean there are numerous other Caremark plans that do force mail order. Just like not all of the plans force people to go to CVS or pay significantly more, but some/many do.buckguy wrote: ↑January 9th, 2024, 12:13 pm
You're always making these generalizations.......I've had Caremark for along time and I'm responsible for a family member who had Caremark until very recently. There's never been "pressure" on me to use mail order from Caremark or on my family member and these were two different insurance plans. My family member has multiple recurring meds, which would seem to be a target for this "pressure".
CVS has made no secret of their plans to close a large number of stores over 2022-24, although it's not exactly a huge fraction of their store count overall and the media coverage usually neglects that or neglects the multi-year planning. If anything I'm surprised they haven't closed more stores where they have market saturation. None of the ones near me have trouble generating front end volume--maybe that happens where you are but I haven't seen it here or anyplace I've travelled. If CVS has problems with Medicaid, they seem to involve inflating reimbursement charges to Medicaid managed care programs. This is just one of a large number of articles i've come across regarding this: https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2023/05/ ... -loophole/
It is well documented CVS front end is a struggling unit and is a tiny portion of the company's overall revenue and likely not profitable. This is why they keep cutting down mix, cutting down staffing, cutting ads/promotions (now only have an ad every two weeks, no more new ad every week), and scaling back private label. Their attempts to focus more on wellness (more vitamins, higher cost, and some fitness stuff like weights etc.) and increased beauty focus seem to have fallen completely on their face and at this point the CVS front end is just treading water with what it has. They claim they are cutting liquor in "Health Hub" Stores but so far in my area not one of those stores has cut liquor and if they did they'd probably walk 30-40% of their front end sales in those stores.
The only places I see CVS front ends do well are large cities and certain suburb type locations where there isn't much competition. In the more sprawling suburbs with more large grocery stores/Wal Mart/Target units around, their front ends do almost no volume. Even in California their front ends are dead compared to what Longs and Sav-On were doing. Maybe they are busy by your definition, but Longs and Sav-On used to pull in small supermarket style crowds with 2-3 cashiers working all day with lines up front. At CVS you're lucky to have one cashier working up front. The typical Longs or Sav-On had 40-50 employees; the typical CVS has under 20 employees and some have closer to 10 employees. They just do so little front end business. But I do think there is more going on in the pharmacy at CVS than there was with Longs and Sav-On. Since they use strong arm tactics to basically force so many people to fill at CVS with Caremark.