Rx Matters. In This Issue:

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1 January/February Volume 2 Number 1 Rx Matters A newsletter created especially for managed care clients, delivering a mix of news and trends in healthcare, and up-to-date information about our products and services And the survey says (Mail Service Satisfaction Results) Walgreens Mail Service Pharmacy s annual Customer Satisfaction Survey is as important to us as it is to our clients. The survey helps ensure that we understand the needs and expectations of our customers so that we can best meet them. According to our 2006 survey results, Walgreens Mail Service continues to provide a high level of service with 95 percent of respondents rating Overall Satisfaction good to excellent. In addition, 94 percent of respondents rated our Customer Care Centers good to excellent. Mail Service Rating Ease of reading prescription directions 99% Accuracy of order 97% Ease of prescription registration and 96% order form Delivery time 93% Customer Care Center Rating Courtesy and professionalism 97% Hours of operation 96% Knowledge and ability to answer 93% questions Survey conducted by CJ Olson Market Research, Inc., an independent market research company. The accompanying list indicates additional categories that were surveyed and the percentage of good to excellent ratings received. Walgreens values member and client feedback. It serves as an important component in the refinement of our programs and in the development of new products and services. Our goal is to exceed the expectations of you and your members. In This Issue: Mail Service Satisfaction Results...1 E-Prescribing... 2 Walgreens Online Loyalty...3 Time-Saving Tools...5 Generics: The Cost Saving Alternative... 5 New Rx Indications...6 Rx Drug Update...6 Update: Health Corner Clinics... 7 Mark Your Calendar... 7 American Heart Association...8 Pipeline Report...8 Mortar & Pestle Available...8 continued on p Walgreen Co. All rights reserved. Page 1

2 And the survey says (continued from p. 1) I have a choice of two different mail-in Rx companies. I choose Walgreens because the service is excellent. They always when my order has been shipped. I know to watch for it in the mail. - Orlando Mail Service Customer The following comments are from just a few of our clients satisfied members: After two other mail order companies, we are glad to be back at Walgreens. We have been traveling in our motor home for 2 months. Customer Care helped me receive my Rx refills at a pre-arranged destination (my nephew s home)! Thank you! You made our trip easier and we did not have to cut it short. Very good combination of price, value, and service. This is our most important employee medical benefit. I am very grateful to Walgreens. During a recent family emergency where we had to temporarily live out of state for 3 months, Walgreens Mail Service and our local Walgreens Pharmacy were very helpful and caring to our situation. Everyone was extremely kind to us. Thank you all very much. I love you guys! Very easy to use with timely delivery. Great online ordering. You also have really nice, patient people at customer service. We appreciate ongoing feedback from both clients and members. In 2007 we plan to build upon our strong foundation and continue to improve our Mail Service Pharmacy as well as the other products and services we offer. All member statements are printed as submitted and cannot be attributed to an individual in accord with privacy regulations. E-Prescribing To continue providing the highest level of care to your members and increase patient medication adherence, Walgreens utilizes e-prescribing, a practice by which physicians electronically transmit patients prescriptions directly to any Walgreens retail or mail service pharmacy. E-Prescribing with a computer or PDA eliminates illegible, handwritten prescriptions and the serious errors that sometimes result, helping to improve patient safety and avoid costly medical errors. E-Prescribing also ensures that prescriptions reach the pharmacies. According to U.S. Pharmacist magazine, 140 million prescriptions representing 125,000 lives and $100 billion in healthcare costs are not filled each year. A recent IMS study supported these findings stating that of 100 hand-written prescriptions given to patients only 50 percent to 70 percent actually arrive at a pharmacy for filling. E-Prescribing the prescription directly to a Walgreens pharmacy ensures with rare exceptions that the prescription is filled. continued on p Walgreen Co. All rights reserved. Page 2

3 E-Prescribing (continued from p. 2) Additional advantages of e-prescribing include: Two-way communication with Walgreens pharmacies for receipt of prescriptions and pharmacists requests for refill authorizations from physicians Pharmacists ability to perform drug utilization, allergy, and formulary reviews before sending the prescriptions (if physician s software has that capability) Elimination of the need for refill fax forms and phone calls, allowing physicians and pharmacists more time for patient care Your members will find e-prescribing easy and convenient, too. The physician electronically sends the prescription directly to the pharmacy where it arrives within minutes of it being sent. Your members who use Walgreens Mail Service Pharmacy have no need to send in written prescriptions or use Prescription Order or Physician Fax forms. Walgreens has been both a pioneer and an industry leader in e-prescribing. In the early 1990s, Walgreens initiated electronic communications between pharmacies and physician offices utilizing an -like structure to message physicians for refill authorizations. In the following years, Walgreens developed and marketed the system under the PreScribe TM trademark, and eventually sold the software to Proxymed. Today, Walgreens communicates electronically in the sending of prescription renewal requests and receiving new medications orders from participating physicians. To encourage physicians to adopt the practice of e-prescribing, the National e-prescribing Patient Safety Initiative SM (NEPSI SM ) was announced by a coalition of technology and healthcare organizations. This initiative will provide free web-based e-prescribing software for every physician in the United States. All Walgreens retail and mail service pharmacies are listed as pharmacy providers in all e-prescribing software that connects to the vendor SureScripts. For additional information, visit the NEPSI website at Walgreens considers e-prescribing to be of utmost importance, and has developed communication materials to help you promote e-prescribing to your physician members. For more information about e-prescribing, contact your account manager. Walgreens.com Named a Top Online Loyalty Leader Walker Information s 2006 Walker Loyalty Report for Online Retail has named Walgreens.com one of eight top leaders that create and maintain online customer loyalty. The study, conducted in October 2006, considered evaluations of more than 4,800 web sites used by approximately 3,000 online shoppers who purchased at least one item online in the prior three months. Factors impacting online shopper loyalty include ease of purchase and checkout, as well as available payment and delivery options. Shipping costs are also considered, but customers are willing to pay for convenience. continued on p Walgreen Co. All rights reserved. Page 3

4 Walgreens.com Named... (continued from p. 3) According to Walker, loyalty leaders have online environments that tend to be described as dependable, welcoming, fun, and friendly. While Walgreens.com certainly fits this description, its value to your members can translate into cost savings for you, as it provides information on self-care, drugto-drug interactions, interactive health risk assessments, and more. All these can help your members become better informed, more adherent healthcare consumers. Walgreens.com offers quality, convenience, and customer service, as well as the connectivity to our retail stores. One of the site s most popular features is the Pharmacy section. Here, registered customers can transfer prescriptions, set up auto refills and, order and pay for their prescriptions online. They also can view and print their prescription history convenient for physicians office visits, and tax and flexible spending account reimbursement purposes. The Ask a Pharmacist feature provides pharmacists responses to actual questions from our patients ranging from allergic reactions to vitamin supplements. The site s illustrated and interactive Health Library offers comprehensive information on thousands of health topics, as well as health calculators, video features, and disease state information. The library also has more than a year s worth of video clips of recent and archived segments from Walgreens Health Corner TV series. The new Caregivers Support section offers resources and tools that will help caregivers manage their loved ones prescriptions and healthcare needs. Walgreens new health alliances with AARP and Joslin Diabetes Center have enhanced our web site and targeted information on both organizations is available. Walgreens.com offers quality, convenience, and customer service, as well as the connectivity to our retail stores. For example, we will send members an to let them know that the prescription or refill they ordered online is available for pick up at the Walgreens retail store they selected, or has been shipped to their home or other designated location. We are delighted at being named an online customer loyalty leader, and plan to continue updating and enhancing our web site. Encourage your members to visit walgreens.com and experience all the healthcare information it continues to offer Walgreen Co. All rights reserved. Page 4

5 Time-Saving Tools Online With the start of the New Year and 2007 benefits taking effect, Walgreens Mail Service Pharmacy encourages you to remind your members of Members who register online can save time: Refilling their prescriptions with a click Checking their prescription order status 24 hours a day, seven days a week Printing their own prescription history for tax purposes and physicians office visits Checking their Walgreens Mail Service account balance and make payments using a credit card Downloading prescription order and physician fax forms for new prescription submissions In 2006 the number of new members who registered on walgreensmail.com increased by 306 percent. Walgreens Mail Service Pharmacy is committed to continually enhancing our technology to make your members online experience easy, informative, and convenient. Generics: The Cost-Saving Alternative Generic medications account for 56 percent of all dispensed prescriptions in the United States; that s more than 1 billion prescriptions. With generic prices on average 20 percent to 50 percent less than their brand-name counterparts, your members choice of generics can help keep theirs and your costs down. It is important to note that every 1 percent increase in generic utilization results in a 1 percent savings in overall plan costs. Walgreens promotes generic medications throughout its integrated network of more than 5,500 retail and three mail service pharmacies. Our generic utilization rate in December 2006 was 62.4 percent. Our efficiency rate in the same month was 97.1 percent. (Generic efficiency is the percentage of prescriptions that Walgreens fills with a generic medication when a generic equivalent is available.) To help manage costs, encourage your members to: Request that their physicians prescribe generic medication or allow a generic substitution to a brandname medication at their Walgreens retail or mail service pharmacy. Say, Yes! when a Walgreens pharmacist asks them if they would like cost-saving generic equivalents to the brand-name medications prescribed by their physicians. Have their physician indicate on the mail service pharmacy forms that a generic substitution is permissible and may be substituted for a brand-name medication. Ask if there is a therapeutic alternative utilizing a generic medication to treat their condition that will provide the same desired results, when their physician prescribes a name-brand medication. For more information on generic medications, visit the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) web site at Walgreen Co. All rights reserved. Page 5

6 New Rx Indications The following medications have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for new or expanded indications: Drug Name Original Indication New or Expanded Indication Aricept (donepezil HCl) Seroquel (quetiapine fumarate) Risperdal (risperidone) Aricept was FDA approved in 1996 for the treatment of mild to moderate Alzheimer s disease (AD). Seroquel is already approved for the treatment of acute and manic episodes associated with bipolar I disorder and acute manic episodes associated with bipolar disease. Risperdal was originally FDA approved in 1993 to treat acute manic or mixed episodes of bipolar I disorder and schizophrenia in adults. Treatment of severe AD; Aricept is the first and only agent approved for all symptoms of AD (mild, moderate, and severe) Treatment of patients with depressive episodes associated with bipolar disorder Treatment of irritability associated with autistic disorder, including symptoms of aggression, deliberate self-injury, temper tantrums, and mood swings in children ages 5 to 16 years. This is the first time that the FDA has approved a medication for autism. Rx Drug Update The Food and Drug Administration recently approved the following new medications: Drug Name Company/ Availability Indication(s) Dose Form(s) Regimen AWP as of January 2007 Januvia (sitagliptin phosphate) Merck & Co., Inc. Early 2007 Treatment of type 2 diabetes as monotherapy or addon therapy in patients taking other oral diabetes medications, including metformin and thiazolidinediones 25 mg, 50 mg, and 100 mg 100 mg daily, with or without food $6.08 per 25 mg tablet $6.08 per 50 mg tablet $6.08 per 100 mg tablet Omnaris (ciclesonide) nasal spray Altana Early 2007 Treatment of nasal symptoms associated with seasonal and perennial allergic rhinitis in patients age 12 years and older 200 mcg/spray One spray daily Not available Tyzeka (telbivudine) Novartis and Indenix Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Treatment of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) in adults 600 mg tablet One tablet daily $20.29 per 600 mg tablet Unknown NitroMist (nitroglycerin) lingual aerosol NovaDel Pharma, Inc. Unknown Treatment of acute relief and prophylaxis of angina due to coronary artery disease (CAD) 400 mcg/spray Onset of an attack one to two sprays on or under the tounge. May be repeated every five minutes if needed. The maximum dose is three sprays in 15 minutes. Not available Prevention of an attack one to two sprays five to 10 minutes before engaging in an activity that may cause an attack Walgreen Co. All rights reserved. Page 6

7 Update: Health Corner Clinics TM In the September/October 2006 issue of Rx Matters, we announced that Walgreens had opened a total of 19 Health Corner Clinics in its Kansas City and St. Louis, Mo. stores adjacent to their pharmacy departments. The clinics independent and licensed healthcare professionals offer patients diagnosis and treatment of routine medical conditions, diagnostic screenings, and vaccinations, as well as physicians referrals. They refer patients whose medical conditions fall outside of the clinic s scope of practice to other physicians or specialists in the area, and encourage them to have a primary care provider. If patients don t already have a provider, the clinics will work to find one. We are pleased to announce that we have continued opening Health Corner Clinics in our stores, and currently have two in the Las Vegas, Nev., area, 16 in and around Atlanta, Ga., and eight in suburbs around Chicago, Ill. For more information about our Health Corner Clinics, visit com/healthcornerclinic. Mark Your Calendar You and your members may be interested in this list of health-related observances for February and March. For more information, log on to the sponsoring organization s web site. For a complete observance list for the entire year, visit the National Health Information Center s web site at: Observance Date Web Site American Heart Month All February National Wise Health Consumer Month All February Prenatal Infection Prevention Month All February Congenital Heart Awareness Week February National Women s Heart Day February 16 National Brain Injury Awareness Month All March National Multiple Sclerosis Education and Awareness Month All March National Nutrition Month All March National Patient Safety Awareness Week March World Tuberculosis Day 2007 March 24 American Diabetes Alert Day March 27 americandiabetesalert.jsp 2007 Walgreen Co. All rights reserved. Page 7

8 American Heart Association Buy a Heart for $1 Campaign Walgreens will conduct its annual American Heart Association (AHA) Buy a Heart for $1 campaign January 28 through February 28, Beginning the last Sunday in January, Walgreens shoppers can purchase a paper heart, representing their $1 donation to the AHA. Every dollar goes to the AHA to support its research and education programs that help fight heart disease and stroke marks our ninth year of participation in this nationwide promotion, which has raised more than $9.5 million for the AHA since This year, an additional $130,000 contribution, made by selected vendors, will be given to the AHA on behalf of Walgreens. The participating vendors include, Bayer Healthcare, GlaxoSmithKline, Homedics, Pharmavite, and Schering-Plough. Walgreens Specialty Pharmacy Pipeline Report Available The Walgreens Specialty Pharmacy Pipeline Report focuses on drugs that are newly approved or being tested by the Food and Drug Administration. To access the 2006 Fourth Quarter report, go to and click on Specialty Rx Pipeline Report under Reports on the left side of your screen. Mortar & Pestle Available Our new weekly distribution of Mortar & Pestle is a great way to stay updated on notable formulary news events and their projected impact. This publication reports on medication-related events, such as newly approved medications, legal issues, safety alerts, therapeutic agents in the pipeline, new indications, new generics, and decisions made by the Food and Drug Administration and the Walgreens Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee. Contact your account representative if you are interested in receiving Mortar & Pestle e via . References: Food and Drug Administration ( Accessed December 2006 IMS Intelligence Applied ( Accessed December 2006 Knight D. Online Loyalty: Study Finds 8 Internet Retailers Whose Service and Selection Really Click with Customers. The Indianapolis Star. December 18, Time Magazine ( Accessed December 2006 For information about Walgreens Health Services, call or rxservices@walgreens.com. Editorial Board Editor Kevin J. Duffy Designer Rabel Shamuel Corporate Office 1411 Lake Cook Rd., Deerfield, IL Brand names are the property of their respective owners. Articles in Walgreen Co. Rx Matters may be reprinted only by clients of Walgreen Co., or respective agent(s) of clients. Please attach the following statement: Reprinted with permission Walgreen Co. All rights reserved Walgreen Co. All rights reserved. WAG Page 8