The nation's largest pharmacy chain is tweaking its accountable care experiments, ending some relationships and starting others, as it embarks on another more potentially-disruptive venture.
In January of 2013, Walgreens launched three partnerships as part of the Medicare Shared Savings Program, offering providers medication management, better data and a convenient retail experience for their patients, with basic healthcare services in the drugstore chain's clinics.
Before 2014 drew to a close, though, Walgreens ended two of the ACOs, after mixed results in cost savings, though generally positive quality metrics.
I covered those financial outcomes and some relevant quality metrics for at-risk diabetic and cardiovascular beneficiaries for Healthcare Finance News.
Perhaps more significant than Walgreens' small ACO experiment is a quiet pilot the company is running with a new diagnostics firm valued at $9 billion.
Walgreens is partnering with one of the most audacious new entrants in healthcare, Palo Alto-based diagnostics company Theranos, whose main product is a test using a finger prick's worth of blood to screen for dozens of conditions, at a price equal to half of Medicare reimbursement.
Founded by Elizabeth Holmes as a Stanford undergrad, Theranos is poised to rile the $50 billion-plus laboratory services market -- with cholesterol tests for $2.99, hemoglobin A1c tests for $6.67 and many more at low prices using technology that limits the need for hospital labs or large chains like Quest and LabCorp.
Walgreens Wellness Centers in the Bay Area and Phoenix are offering Theranos' needle-free blood tests, and plans are in the works for more nationwide.
Along with Walmart's "new retail price" for healthcare, including many low-cost lab tests, Walgreens' diagnostics options using Theranos could help create regional tipping points in price transparency for healthcare consumers who are increasingly shopping around.