Walgreens flu shot vouchers provide opportunity for thousands of CHS patients to receive a flu shot at no cost to them
DEERFIELD, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Walgreens (NYSE: WAG) (NASDAQ: WAG) and Chicago Health System (CHS), a subsidiary of Vanguard Health Systems, are reminding CHS patients who were given a flu shot voucher from Walgreens to redeem the voucher by the end of the month and help increase flu vaccination rates throughout the Chicagoland area. Through this program, the health system distributed approximately 25,000 vouchers in January to CHS patients who have not received the vaccination.
The voucher must be redeemed by March 31 and is good for one flu shot at any Walgreens pharmacy or Take Care Clinic, which offer flu shots daily with no appointment necessary.
“While we have experienced a fairly mild winter, the flu virus is always unpredictable and can peak at any time,” said Ron Weinert, Walgreens vice president of health systems services. “We want to encourage patients to get a flu shot before their voucher expires as a simple way to protect yourself, your family and community. Our goal is to provide greater access to health care services like immunizations while lowering overall healthcare costs and this program is one way we can help do that.”
“Physician offices remain the mainstay of vaccinating our patients,” said Dr. Gary Wainer, the Chief Medical Officer at Chicago Health System. “However, for physicians there continues to be uncertainties of annual vaccine supply and for patients, access to physician offices on evenings and weekends can sometimes be a challenge. That’s why we see this program as a win-win for patients and physicians. Since flu vaccination remains one the primary interventions to help reduce the spread of influenza, we are very excited about being able to bring this expanded initiative to our communities.”
Walgreens looks forward to future opportunities to work with CHS on programs to help improve access to care, health education and medication adherence.
About Walgreens
As the nation's largest drugstore chain with fiscal 2011 sales of $72 billion, Walgreens (www.walgreens.com) vision is to become America’s first choice for health and daily living. Each day, Walgreens provides nearly 6 million customers the most convenient, multichannel access to consumer goods and services and trusted, cost-effective pharmacy, health and wellness services and advice in communities across America. Walgreens scope of pharmacy services includes retail, specialty, infusion, medical facility and mail service, along with respiratory services. These services improve health outcomes and lower costs for payers including employers, managed care organizations, health systems, pharmacy benefit managers and the public sector. The company operates 7,840 drugstores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Take Care Health Systems is a Walgreens subsidiary that is the largest and most comprehensive manager of worksite health and wellness centers and in-store convenient care clinics, with more than 700 locations throughout the country.
About Chicago Health System
Chicago Health System (CHS), a Physician-Hospital managed care organization, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Vanguard Health Systems and along with the MacNeal, Weiss, West Suburban and Westlake Hospitals, Vanguard Medical Group, Genesis Commercial lab, and Vanguard Occupational Medicine services, functions as one of the entities in the Vanguard Health Chicago market.
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