Walgreens giving free care to jobless and uninsured

Source: AP


Walgreens giving free care to jobless and uninsured


NEW YORK – Drugstore operator Walgreens will offer free clinic visits to the unemployed and uninsured for the rest of the year, providing tests and routine treatment for minor ailments through its walk-in clinics — though patients will still pay for prescriptions.

Walgreens said patients who lose their job and health insurance after March 31 will be able to get free treatment at its in-store Take Care clinics for respiratory problems, allergies, infections and skin conditions, among other ailments. Typically those treatments cost $59 or more for patients with no insurance.

Hal Rosenbluth, chairman of the Take Care Health Systems division, described the plan as something close to an experiment: He said Walgreens isn't sure of patient demand or how much providing the services might cost the company.

It's likely to generate more attention for the clinics, however. Rosenbluth said a typical Take Care patient tells eight other people about his or her experience. So far, about 30 percent of Take Care patients were new customers to Walgreens.

<snip>



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090331/ap_on_bi_ge/walgreen_clinics

What would happen if we all went around caring for each other when times are tough?


Hmmm...what WOULD happen?

Cool!

keep up the good... it goes a long long way.

This is a great way for the to contribute to the community during these hard times and also a good way to attract a lot of new customers that can contribute to the bottom line in the long run (hey, I had to get the cynical part in as well!).

Walgreen's has always tended to be my favorite drug store for a lot of unique products they offer and specials they run every week. They beat the hell out of CVS, that's for sure.

:blush:

... then again, I wasn't looking for one, whenever I'd pop in to the Walgreen's up the street.

Which, I think, I'll be popping into more, if they're serious about doing this kind of stuff...

I checked the website and there are none in my area. That's too bad.

http://www.takecarehealth.com/clinic-locations.aspx

n/t

Not saying it's a bad thing, but I bet that's their primary motive here. How many of us knew they had clinics before this?

Now, only if more companies thought out of the box and came up with ideas in which everyone wins...

about having free national health care because the pharmacies would take care of it for us.:)

If their business improves because of this, maybe other retailers, clinics, etc will do something similar.

They've had the same manager and pretty much the same staff since they first opened, and are so friendly and go out of their way to help you find deals in their store. The pharmacist has saved my ass on certain things a number of times (I call him my bartender). It's much more like a neighborhood pharmacy than a chain store.

welcome to DU! God bless

:hi:

I used to travel down to NO to work for a while about 25 years ago.
I would drive thru Houma to get from N.O. to the Waterford Plant....near Hooker Chemicals.
There were days we could not go outside during lunch because Hooker had released some sort of gas...

I think we would drive to Houma for some really great fried catfish.

re: prescription contraceptives? How nuanced of us!

Quite a boon for those who benefit from this new policy, that's for sure!

to I think it was the Insurance Companies, Medicare? Well it was something like that. Something about one part of the gravy train getting more than it's fair share of $$$$$$$$$$$. So I guess they might need good publicity of any sort.

I think I will be taking my prescriptions there from now on!!

but we buy all otc meds, etc. from Walgreens. It might cost them in the short term, but actions like these will win customers for life.

who can't take advantage of this. Sad.