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Prescription Channels

Making it easier and less expensive to fill prescriptions makes it easier to adhere to prescribed therapies. Better adherence promotes better health outcomes and lower overall costs.

CVS Caremark offers plan sponsors and participants convenient options for filling prescriptions—a national retail network and award-winning and flexible mail service. Customer Care support and online tools help consumers identify savings opportunities and order and track refills.

How Proactive Pharmacy Care Can Help

  • Retail Network

    • Available to plan participants depending on plan design
    • 62,000 pharmacies nationwide, including independent and chain pharmacies as well as our 7,000 CVS/pharmacy retail locations.

  • Mail Service Pharmacy

    • Makes maintenance prescriptions more affordable and can save money for plans and plan participants.
    • Provides convenient delivery of prescriptions for treatment lasting longer than three months.
    • Provides a more consistent opportunity to implement clinical interventions that support plan goals.
    • Maximizes generic substitution and dispensing.
    • Offers automatic renewal and refill capability.
    • Plan design, promotional campaigns and personalized plan participant outreach drive increased utilization of this lowest-cost delivery channel.
    • Employees of Best-in-Class clients use mail for nearly half their prescriptions. 2
    • Nationally recognized for excellence in service.


    To make mail service an even easier choice, CVS Caremark can now offer the following:
    • Our Maintenance Choice™ option—a 90-day prescription dispensed at mail service pricing at CVS/pharmacy stores.
    • Up to a five-day bridge supply at CVS/pharmacy stores for participants who didn’t order their refill in time.

  • CVS/pharmacy

    Working with plan sponsor goals in mind, CVS/pharmacy offers additional benefits and service to our pharmacy benefit management clients. The pharmacies have been reengineered to make face-to-face counseling more available because in-person advice and answers are among the most effective ways to impact consumer behavior. In addition, CVS Pharmacists:

    • Have more plan- and participant-specific pertinent information at point-of-service.
    • Can offer recommendations on the use of generics.
    • Can remind plan participants about lapsed prescriptions or needed refills--such counseling is improving refill rates by up to 20 percent.3
    • Can provide first-fill counseling to improve adherence and achieve plan goals.

  • Customer Care

    • Nationally recognized for excellence in service.
    • Representatives have information on an individual caller’s plan and prescription history.
    • Can provide personalized counseling regarding generic and other prescription-related opportunities.
    • Can order refills, answer questions about prescription orders and put a caller in touch with a pharmacist for clinical concerns.
    • Representatives have behavioral analytics support for more effective counseling and increased plan participant satisfaction.

  • Caremark.com

    • Most convenient way to order mail prescription refills—available 24/7.
    • Plan participants receive refill reminders and can track their order.
    • Ability to check drug costs and find out how to save.
    • Provides the option of signing up for automatic refills and renewals.
    • Helps identify the most cost-effective ways to fill prescriptions.
    • Plan participants can learn about their medicines and the health conditions they are treating.

  • 1 Hewitt 2005 survey: Health Care Expectations: Future and Strategy
    2 CVS Caremark 2007 Book of Business Best-in-Class data
    3 CVS Caremark 2008 data based on pilot program(PCI) in CVS stores