CVS
#Yes, <UNK>, this is <UNK>.
We're ---+ I talked about the autoimmune opportunity, RA, for where there's more drugs that treat that disease state, so more competition.
We believe we can get better rebates versus Crohn's disease.
I think there are similar opportunities in oncology.
We're still early, but we're working on that.
I think, again, there's been a lot of talk about outcomes-based contracting.
We think that is a good idea, but practically very challenging.
EHRs don't communicate with each other, members move between health plans.
The information often doesn't move with them.
But we believe, with the tools and capabilities we have, that we're best situated to make progress in this area, and we're continuing to look at it and work at them.
We'll be able to talk more about it, we believe, on Analyst Day.
I will pick up on ScriptSync.
This program is really ---+ as you can imagine, the million people who signed up for it are basically those patients who are filling roughly four prescriptions or more per month.
As we did our research with them, what we saw and heard is their number one pain point is they've got a lot of complexity, healthcare-wise, in their lives.
Pharmacy is a piece, but there's other elements of it.
They're making lots of trips to the pharmacy, and that's hard for many of them.
A big solve for them is consolidating all of it.
The way it works is we help those patients, and we line them up to one date per month, which they can come in.
It sounds simple, but as you can imagine, with all of the insurance plans out there, we've got to work behind the scenes to get them synched up.
That's the hard part behind the solution from a consumer perspective.
I think what's exciting for both the patients and the plans that we're serving is that ultimately this leads to very high consumer satisfaction, and much higher levels of adherence.
That's ultimately the healthcare outcome that we were looking for as we developed ScriptSync.
Steve, I guess from ---+ you'd have to look at that based on timing from a seasonal perspective, given year-over-year overlap of the flu.
I would say we've not seen a material change in the volumes at this point in time, absent that.
Well, <UNK>, there is no question that size and scale in this business matters probably more today than it ever has with costs in mind.
I do believe that, as we go through the RFP process, it starts with price and service.
You've got to be right there.
Then we can certainly add to our offering, with the differentiation that we provide in the marketplace.
Yes, I do believe that if ---+ it is harder, if one is lacking size and scale to effectively compete.
<UNK>, this is <UNK>.
Clients' biggest concern when they think about costs, they're really thinking about specialty.
About half of their specialty spend is on the pharmacy benefit, which PBMs historically have managed.
The other half of the specialty spend is under the medical benefit, which is not being managed very well today by the health plans.
The platforms that they manage specialty medical on just weren't built to manage drugs.
We actually have the capability to manage that benefit across the pharmacy and medical benefit.
We think about unit cost, <UNK> talked about that.
Size, scale, and capabilities really make a difference there.
We're seeing specialty drugs come to market and be limited to a few providers.
Our capabilities enable us to have access to those limited-distribution drugs.
The other side of it is, what can we do clinically to manage the 3% of our clients' patients that are driving 25% of their overall healthcare costs.
We've integrated a capability that allows us not to just manage the specialty prescription, but to manage that patient ---+ not just with their specialty condition, but with all their co-morbidities.
We've demonstrated that we can reduce overall healthcare costs.
As we tell that story to clients, it resonates.
It's a key decision point for them as they're making a selection in the marketplace.
I think we're seeing a pretty rational marketplace, especially in the drug store business.
We haven't seen any major moves, I would say, in the last six months or so ---+ maybe even longer among our key drug store competitors.
I feel like it allows us to continue to focus on what I said before, which is driving profitable growth; focusing on that 30% of our customers, where we really are seeing some nice sales and margin growth; and being aware of the marketplace, but being rational, as you said, in terms of our approach there.
<UNK>, probably one thing that's a little different with CVS is, just given our tenure and the depth of expertise we have from a loyalty card program, we know who our best customers are.
We're engaging with them.
We've designed strategies that's allowed us to really tailor our marketing programs and our promotional offers to them.
We're probably in a different spot than some of the other industry participants at this point in time.
I think we have the ability, if you will ---+ and you saw it through this quarter ---+ to trade off a little bit of top line, but really focus our promotional dollars on those customers that really matter, to drive margin expansion in the front.
No, I think that we continue to watch them.
They're doing a nice job, but it's a big marketplace.
As I've said, we growing share in that category.
Okay.
Everyone, thanks for your time this morning.
Again, we appreciate your ongoing interest in CVS Health.
If you have any follow-up questions, you can reach out to <UNK> or <UNK>.
