Under the heading "we told you so", comes the announcement that Walgreens Take Care Health is actively working with hundreds of health care systems directly.  You can see the reference in Drugstore News here.  We give Walgreens full credit for the initiative, which we feel is the next logical step for on-site programs and employer managed health care.  If you want to reference the original "future of" claims that we have made about the industry, hospitals, health care systems, and the coming convergence, read the book.  In it, we suggest that the best way to optimize health care integration and reduce cost is to have the employer-based programs work, very carefully, with local providers.

 

Walgreens is referenced along with other providers in the article, and the obvious is restated as the writer reflects that the on-site vendors are being contacted by hospitals and health care systems.  No kidding. The health systems have been preening primary care networks in their local markets for decades, and the newest providers are now cropping up in the retail space, not in the on-site medical building.  More important, the consumers are electing the provider at the corner Walgreens or at the employers' sites.

 

If one goes into the archives and looks to the charter programs, all of the mature programs are addressing close linkages with hospital resources on a selective basis.  Some are being very successful, and some are just plain political.  What is your program doing to figure out this important next step?