Walgreens expands its push into primary care

Walgreens expands primary care push: ©Walgreens

Walgreens is expanding its push into primary care. The company announced a partnership with Pearl Health, which provides services that help physicians succeed with value-based care.

Walgreens will provide complementary services, including prescription fulfillment, medication adherence, immunizations, care gap closure, and diagnostic testing. Walgreens will also work with providers to help patients discharged from the hospital transition to home.

“Walgreens is committed to being the partner of choice for providers and health systems looking to transition quickly and effectively to value-based care and improve outcomes in the communities they serve,” said John Driscoll, executive vice president and president, U.S. Healthcare, Walgreens Boots Alliance, in a statement. “Our partnership with Pearl Health allows us to reach more communities faster and enable comprehensive, affordable care that improves long-term health outcomes and fosters healthier communities.”

According to a Walgreens spokesperson, the pharmacy chain’s and Pearl Health’s capabilities complement each other to create coordinated, value-based care solutions that will provide high quality care with cost-effective methods. Pearl’s proprietary Urgency Score algorithm uses a variety of health and demographic data sources to proactively identify patients that could benefit from its programs. This symbiotic relationship will help improve performance of current customers, the ability to manage medications and drug spend, and offer a portfolio of specialized wraparound health care and pharmacy services.

“At Pearl Health, we believe that local primary care providers are key to improving America’s overall health,” said Michael Kopko, chief executive officer, Pearl Health, in a statement. “Our technology-powered value-based care model aligns seamlessly with the health care services Walgreens offers, particularly in the most vulnerable communities. With a focus on proactive, coordinated care, we’ll collaborate to deliver a better solution to providers and ultimately deliver high-quality services to patients, while managing their care efficiently. We’re very excited about the implications of this partnership for patients in Medicare and beyond.”

Walgreens’ prior primary care initiatives include a majority investment in VillageMD, a provider of primary, multispecialty, and urgent care. According to Walgreens, the partnership with Pearl Health provides an additional, complementary value-based delivery channel that will allow Walgreens to reach more regions and patients and offer an even broader set of solutions to providers and health systems.

The pharmacy chain also has major investments in home-based care through CareCentrix and health system-owned pharmacy solutions through Shields Health Solutions.