January 10, 2012
Posted by Tim Darragh at 11:05:25 AM on January 10, 2012
If you get your prescriptions filled at Walgreen Co.'s stores, and your prescription plan uses Express Scripts, you likely know by now that you're facing a big change: Walgreen's won't take your Express Scripts card.The two companies butted heads last year as they failed to agree on a new contract, which expired at the beginning of this year. That means people using Express Scripts as their pharmacy benefits manager can pay for their prescriptions with cash at Walgreen pharmacies, but your prescription plan will not be recognized there.
For a change, consumers are not taking the entire brunt of the dispute. Walgreen's says it has enrolled 125,000 people in its new Prescription Savings Club, including Express Scripts customers.
Express Scripts has provided a link to consumers who want to find another nearby pharmacy that will tkae its plan.
It's a clash of pharmacy titans. Walgreen is the nation's largest pharmacy chain, with eight Lehigh Valley stores. Express Scripts has processing centers in Philadelphia and Harrisburg and is 55 on the Fortune 500 List.
Have you been impacted by the corporate dispute? How are you resolving your problem?
ABOUT THE WRITERS
ALISA BOWMAN has been a health junkie and health journalist for nearly 20 years. A former newspaper reporter and magazine editor, her articles and essays have appeared in national magazines such as Parade, Better Homes & Gardens and Women's Heath. She runs, adores vegetables and meditates in Emmaus, where her husband and daughter are known to eat Cheetos behind her back. She also writes about marriage at ProjectHappilyEverAfter.com.
MILTON CARRERO (@MiltonDCarrero) is a journalist, singer/songwriter and Yoga Instructor. The son of a physician and medical scholar, he was exposed to health theories since before he was born. He survived cancer at the age of 23, which awoke his interests in nutrition, meditation and alternative forms of medicine. He grew up in Puerto Rico and is married to a Lehigh Valley native. He has two children, a daughter and a son.
TIM DARRAGH has been reporting and editing the news for 30 years, most of it at The Morning Call. For much of that time, he's been doing award-winning investigative and in-depth reporting projects. Tim created the three-year-long Change of Heart project, and wrote a series on the state's fractured food inspection system that led to widespread improvements in food safety. Meantime, that novice jogger you see plodding along the streets around Bethlehem Township? That would be Tim.
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