Corporate Responsibility

The world of health care has become complex and hard to navigate for most people. What people seek is a clear path to better health to ensure a healthy future. As a market leader in pharmacy services and retail medical clinics, CVS Caremark is uniquely positioned to engage patients and plan members in behaviors that will improve health outcomes and lower health care costs. In order to fully realize this potential, we clearly defined our purpose – helping people on their path to better health – and sharpened our strategy – reinventing pharmacy. Core to our strategy is a focus on innovation.

“Innovation” to us means demonstrating openness, curiosity and creativity in the relentless pursuit of excellence. If we are going to make a difference in helping people on their path to better health, then we must provide more relevant, caring, expert guidance, more cost-effective solutions and even more convenient access. Simply put, we must innovate and do things differently.

We are making these changes because we know our customers, clients and patients need a trusted partner to help them stay healthy. We do this by expanding and empowering the role of the pharmacist. Our pharmacists don’t just fill prescriptions. In 2011, they continued to use the latest technology – and our company’s extensive research and knowledge of chronic health conditions and medication adherence – to become everyday advocates for the health of our patients. This spirit of patient advocacy and our strategy of reinventing pharmacy are further strengthened by the unique services performed by our pharmacists and our MinuteClinic nurse practitioners, who are located together in many of our stores.

Our commitment to this reinvention goes beyond the pharmacy and retail health clinic environment. It results in a focus on innovation that permeates every aspect of our business and operations, from our policies and procedures, to our people.

It is now standard procedure, for example, to continually assess our operational footprint and create more innovative, sustainable solutions to address our impact on the environment. We know, for instance, that the energy used to power our more than 7,300 retail pharmacy locations accounts for the vast majority of the company’s total energy use and is our most significant environmental impact. So, in 2011, we implemented various measures aimed at reducing energy use in our stores without compromising the customer experience.

We also value openness with our customers, stakeholders and the communities within which we do business. In this report, for the first time, we have included an accounting of our political contributions and activities. And we are providing an expanded look at corporate diversity, with new insights on diversity among our colleagues.

Of course, all good ideas start with great people. Whether it’s being more accountable, looking for new ways to save energy, or volunteering to support a company-sponsored charity, our 200,000 colleagues truly define “who” we are as a corporate citizen.

I invite you to read about how we’re helping people on their path to better health through our innovative programs and people, some of whom you’ll meet in this report. And I invite you to get a real sense of the exciting progress we’re making, in many different ways, every single day.

Sincerely,