Walmart Acquires Pharmacy Management Capabilities from CareZone

June 26, 2020 - Walmart recently announced that it acquired specific assets of CareZone, a pharmacy management app that allows patients and families to manage medications as well as physician instructions. 

CareZone recently developed a mobile app to help individuals manage medicine and chronic illness for each member of a household. Families can use the app to scan labels or insurance cards to quicken the process. 

Walmart stated that it specifically acquired CareZone’s technology platform, patents, and key intellectual property. But CareZone will remain a separate company unrelated to Walmart.

Along with the acquisition, Walmart is also welcoming members of CareZone’s product and technology team that built CareZone’s app. 

“We’re also excited to welcome the members of CareZone’s product and technology team that built their app, and who will help us innovate and integrate faster with Walmart’s existing systems,” Walmart said in the announcement. 

“The technology and team members joining Walmart will augment our current Health & Wellness capabilities and support our focus on digital health care solutions. CareZone will remain a separate company unrelated to Walmart.”

Walmart stated that its consumer insights team conducted a survey that found that cost is the top barrier to healthcare for 43 percent of Walmart shoppers. Convenient and access followed at 27 and 22 percent. 

Additionally, 40 percent of individuals reported delayed medical care.

“The goal of any technology startup is to build a product or experience that touches the lives of as many people as possible,” Walter Smith, co-founder and chief technology officer of CareZone, said in the announcement. 

“Adding our technology platform to Walmart’s existing digital capabilities and physical reach creates a unique opportunity to redefine what the future of digital health and wellness can look like. The CareZone team members joining Walmart are excited to bring our knowledge and apply it to such a broad canvas.”

Walmart noted that the company focuses on delivering innovative solutions to boost access and affordable and convenient healthcare across the business, which is why over ten years ago, Walmart launched its $4 Prescriptions Program. 

The Walmart $4 Prescriptions program requires no membership, no fee, and no insurance, and offers patients discounted medications in 30-day and 90-day supplies, according to a GoodRx article. 

The program is sometimes called “Walmart’s $4 generic list,” and includes about 100 different generic medications from between $4 and $40, including diabetes, cholesterol, heart health and blood pressure, and mental health medications, along with many others. 

“Acquiring the technology platform of CareZone is another example of our continued commitment to helping lower the cost of healthcare for our 160 million customers who shop Walmart each week, while offering convenient options across multiple channels to help them manage their health and wellness,” the company stated.

Medication management is extremely vital to ensure that patients understand the purpose of the medication they are prescribed and take it in the correct manner at the correct time.

In 2012, Walgreens launched a mobile app that makes managing prescriptions online easier and offers various interactive tools to help consumers better understand and monitor their health.

By setting up a pharmacy account, users can refill their prescriptions directly from the app by accessing medications in their account profile, prescription number, or just by scanning their prescription label. It will also give directions to the pharmacy to pick it up. 

Then, in 2012, Walgreens added two new features to its mobile health app: medication reminders and prescription transfers via barcode scans.

Users can track their medication schedules and receive alerts, which can scheduled nine different ways, including daily, hourly, weekly and more customizable ways.

Mobile technology continues to play a large part in the pharmacy management strategy for big box retailers like Walgreens and Walmart. New capabilities are allowing the companies to engage patients while ensuring appropriate use of drugs prescribed through their pharmacies.