Healthy Solutions

As we began 2009, the economic forecast was discouraging and we were concerned about the impact that the economic downturn could have on our local communities and on access to health care and the medications people need.

We were pleased, then, by opportunities in 2009 to contribute to the national conversations that took place about economic recovery and about making the U.S. health care system more accessible and more effective. We also were gratified by opportunities to have an immediate impact across all of the communities we serve as a large health care company and employer with the capacity to drive positive social change through our business practices.

Healthy Solutions, our 2009 Corporate Social Responsibility report, describes our continuing efforts across the country to partner with local governments, nonprofits, schools and faith-based organizations to support important community priorities like access to health care and job creation. This report also captures some of the advisory work we did in 2009. In one case, we were invited to testify before the U.S. Senate on our perspective on the government’s Welfare to Work program, an initiative with which CVS Caremark has a long history. We also are contributing to the work of President Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board as a member of the education and training subcommittee.

At the same time, this report tells the story of how our more than 200,000 CVS Caremark employees responded to other opportunities to serve in 2009: by providing patients with access to high quality and affordable solutions that meet their health care needs, by rolling up their sleeves and volunteering in their communities, by organizing food drives and fund raisers, by helping other health care practitioners better understand how medicine works in the United States and by sharpening our company’s overall approach to our Vision of improving the quality of human life.

This was the vision we had when CVS merged with Caremark in 2007: an integrated health care company with the collective expertise, scale and network to improve the delivery, accessibility and affordability of pharmacy services and acute family medical care. Every day we strive to fulfill our Mission by creating solutions that enable people to sustain their health and their well-being.

Along the way, we are maintaining a company culture that truly values and encourages contributions to the communities we serve. In 2009, we built on our practice of hosting free health fairs in urban communities, for example, by also offering more than $3 million in free flu shots to the unemployed. This initiative saw us partner with the NAACP and with career centers sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor to ensure better access to flu shots. In addition, our MinuteClinic network of walk-in retail health clinics and CVS/pharmacy stores dramatically increased the public’s access to the H1N1 flu vaccine as that pressing public health issue became a national concern in 2009.

While health care remains the primary focus of our company, our Mission calls on us to be responsive to the broader needs of our communities. So, as this report indicates, we are contributing to a healthy environment. We are ensuring that our employees are valued for their contributions. We are providing relief to communities during times of emergency. And we are operating in an ethical, transparent manner. These are our social and environmental responsibilities, and we take these responsibilities very seriously.

Our commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility took us to some interesting places in 2009. One example is our CVS/pharmacy GreenBagTag program. This program, launched in 2009, provides rewards to customers who forego plastic bags for reusable shopping bags (or who choose to use no bag at all). It was borne from our realization that our ExtraCare program, the nation’s largest customer loyalty program, was capable not only of providing savings to customers, but also of creating powerful incentives for socially responsible behavior. Already, our customers have had their GreenBagTags scanned more than 6 million times. Having seen the proof of this concept, we now are designing ExtraCare programs that encourage healthy behaviors like better disease management by customers with chronic conditions.

As our company has grown, we have maintained a steadfast commitment to responsible business practices. Our approach to patient privacy, for example, is now driven by a Privacy Governance Council, a group that we created in 2009 to enhance our privacy and data protection strategy, provide leadership on privacy issues and align the privacy strategy with the core business operations of CVS Caremark. We also made significant investments in diversity management and in technologies that make it easier for our colleagues to communicate and to collaborate, no matter their location.

CVS Caremark has a long history of giving back to our communities, dating back to our roots as a regional New England retailer. In 2009 we donated more than $79 million in cash, in-kind contributions and volunteer hours to worthy organizations all across the country. This included a special $46 million in-kind donation to Feeding America that helped sustain thousands of food banks and shelters serving the millions of Americans struggling with the daily challenge of feeding their families.

We view these commitments as integral to the way we conduct business. They define who we are as a company and make CVS Caremark a place where our colleagues are proud to work. An essential part of our commitment is communicating our progress, which we do annually through this report summarizing our contributions and our business practices. I hope you will take a few minutes to read this 2009 Corporate Social Responsibility Report, learn more about what we’re doing in this regard, and then share your feedback with us.

Sincerely,