Go Walgreens

[lame54]

http://crooksandliars.com/2014/01/walgreens-returns-medicare-drug-policy

With an estimated 2 million Americans having signed up for private health insurance plans on the federal and state exchanges, the Affordable Care Act is now making real progress towards the goal of 7 million new enrollees by the end of 2014. But as the Washington Post cautions, Obamacare's first real test began on January 1 when pharmacies, emergency rooms and doctors' offices had their initial encounters with newly insured patients. That's why Walgreen Co., the nation's largest drug store chain, announced Monday it will provide a month of prescriptions to those customers who do not yet have a plan identification number. - See more at: http://crooksandliars.com/2014/01/walgreens-returns-medicare-drug-policy#sthash.CxedsEfr.dpuf

[BlueStreak]

1. Doing well by doing good

They will build a lot of loyalty with those customers.

Good for Walgreens.

[TroglodyteScholar]

2. Yep

My experiences with Walgreens have been hit-and-miss (each store is a snowflake?), but this is a very savvy move...

Edit: Misspoke originally...said Wal-Mart, but meant Walgreens....

[lame54]

5. don't credit wal-mart with anything - it's all about Walgreens

[postulater]

3. Smart marketing and good for their customers but Medicare considers this kind of thing

to be inducement and it is illegal.

[Jim Lane]

6. This doesn't apply to Medicare recipients.

Per the linked article, the Walgreen's policy is for &quot c)ustomers who have enrolled in Obamacare, but don't have an ID yet from an insurer...."

As far as I know the healthcare.gov website problems had no effect on Medicare recipients, or on people signing up for Medicare as they become eligible.

[postulater]

8. Yeah, and I'm sure they have attorneys to handle stuff like that.

[freedom fighter jh]

7. Good move and probably necessary.

I signed up on the federal exchange. It meant endless hours on the phone -- fortunately during one of my less-busy times -- and still I had to call my new provider today, January 2, to get my number. It's easy to imagine that some may not have been able to get any confirmation that they're enrolled.

Good for Walgreens.

[eggplant]

9. It is generous, but not as much as you might think.

They'll still be able to bill for the first month after they get the information. It does mean that the people don't have to suffer (and this is a GREAT thing, no doubt about it), but it isn't a huge financial risk, and will bring in a ton of new customers.

[BlueStreak]

11. I applaud companies that use their brains to earn money

without exploiting people.

If this business move is self-serving for Walgreens, that's OK with me. I am glad they are able to help people out.

I think it is important that we progressives not ever be anti-business per se. We should be anti-exploitation, anti-corruption, anti-monopoly, anti-manipulation, and all those things. But business, per se, is not a bad thing. Good business is good for everybody. And when risk-takers or people with clever ideas do better than others through the strength of their ideas or hard work, I'm all for that.

[eggplant]

12. I agree completely. n/t

[underpants]

10. Insurance co.'s failed THEIR launch

But you won't hear it put that way on the MSM

[spanone]

13. k&r...

[Cooley Hurd]

14. Walgreen Joins Exodus to Private Exchanges After Obamacare

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-09-17/walgreen-joins-in-exodus-to-obamacare-like-private-exchanges

September 18, 2013

Walgreen Co. (WAG:US), the biggest U.S. drugstore chain, will move its workers into a private health insurance exchange to buy company-subsidized coverage, the latest sign of how the debate over Obamacare is accelerating a historic shift in corporate health-care coverage.

About 160,000 Walgreen employees now have to choose which coverage plan suits them best at a time of rising complexity in the health-care system. While Walgreen said it will provide funding in 2014 equal to what workers get now, the move curtails uncertainty on future outlays, and there’s no guarantee the company’s contribution will rise if premiums do.

Walgreen joins Sears Holdings Corp. (SHLD:US) and Darden Restaurants Inc. (DRI:US) in a private exchange run by Aon Plc (AON:US) that includes 18 companies and 600,000 people, Aon said. While the private effort isn’t directly linked to Obamacare, the growing use of private exchange similar to the law’s public ones adds new fodder to the debate over the law’s influence.

STORY: Signed Up For Obamacare? How to Make Sure You're Really Enrolled
“For a while, large employers have been moving in this direction,” said Thomas Buchmueller, a professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business in Ann Arbor, by telephone. “After the legislation was passed, they looked at the exchanges and said, ‘This is something we can do.’”
</snip>

[BlueStreak]

16. This is actually a good thing, but the timing may be a problem

It has always been insane for our insurance to be linked to our jobs. That only happened as an historical accident. After WWII, so many people were in college under the GI Bill that there was an extreme shortage of workers at the moment when our economy was really taking off. Congress put wage controls in place to forestall runaway inflation. But that meant employers had to look for ways to sweeten the pot. And that is why "fringe benefits" became common.

That's it. That is why we have this absurd system. It kind-of worked for a couple of generations when the pattern was that workers stayed with the same company for an entire career. But in today's world where people change jobs frequently, often working as free agents with multiple companies, employment-based insurance is a lousy idea.

The fact is that those who had to buy their own insurance really got screwed because they had no bargaining power and there were no limits on the abuses of the insurance providers. The ACA creates the structure where the abuses are limited and the deals available to to individual buyers are almost as good as the group plans that big employers can negotiate.

By moving people from the big group policies to the exchanges, this means that everybody will eventually get the same deal, and that is good.

The bad news is that it is still the same crooks running the insurance companies, so that struggle still lies ahead.

Another good thing resulting from this development is that we will reach the tipping point much sooner where the public demands a public option because buying insurance from mobsters is just too damned expensive.

This is a lot f change to absorb in a short period of time. It would have been better if this move from group policy to private insurance happened more gradually. But it clearly says that Walgreens and Sears think the exchange is a good system, so we should welcome their vote of confidence. Now maybe both of those companies can be more productive by spending more time on the things they do well and less time managing health insurance. (I'm not sure there is ANYTHING that Sears does well.)

[Kingofalldems]

15. Issa to investigate this one.

[lame54]

17. and he'll withhold anything he finds