CVS to Close 900 Drugstore Locations & Expand Health Services
You may start seeing fewer CVS locations in the near future.
In an effort to adapt to their changing customer preferences and offer more health-related services, CVS has opted to close about 900 locations over the next three years according to Yahoo! Finance.
There are currently around 9,900 CVS locations across the United States, so we’re looking at a decrease of about 9%. However, the remaining stores will likely have enhanced health and primary care services.
Since CVS acquired the health insurance company Aetna in 2018, Aetna members may be encouraged to visit CVS stores and Minute Clinics for no to low copays & other potential perks. One store format, Health Hub, will be expanding to 1,000 locations by the end of the year & offer more services like mental health consultations, chronic disease screenings, and even other wellness services such as yoga rooms.
Which stores are closing depends on several factors, including customer habits and health needs. Visit the CVS store locator to find locations near you.
I have to say I am not surprised at all by this, my hope is that they take the staff at the closed stores and move them to other areas stores. My local CVS stores (we have four stores in a 10 minute drive of one another) are all dreadfully understaffed and it can take up to a week to get a prescription filled. Every time I have gone in the staff is miserable and it’s obvious that they are getting horrible abused by the customers. I feel so bad for them but at the same time, I also am super frustrated at how long I have to wait for my medication. Sadly, my insurance makes me use CVS. I have had much better luck getting things at the CVS in the local Target.
Same here! They have to fill so many prescriptions that they barely have enough room to place them and they take longer than other pharmacies to fill prescriptions
Same here my insurance makes me use CVS too. I would rather go back to Costco. I don’t like going to CVS anymore because of their coupons never working and the staff is not helpful on this issue.
My insurance required to me use CVS as well. I called and found out that I can opt-out of that and after I did that I was able to go to other pharmacies. They don’t tell you so I had to ask. Each January I have to call for each family member and do it again.
Aetna told me if I didn’t transfer my prescriptions and make them for 90 days to CVS then I’d have to pay full price. So now I’m paying this massive co-pay of $50 for just one medicine that I have to take every month. I pay $20 for another one. I’ve never liked Aetna, but I have it through my employer. I sure hope they keep one of the stores here open.
Have you looked your prescription up on GoodRX or AAA if you have it? On one of my medications, it was actually cheaper to use GoodRX, and on another it was cheapest to use AAA. They both beat my insurance a few times. The pharmacy can check the cheapest deal for you.
While this is true, remember that GoodRx and similar companies make money by collecting and selling your information. The pharmacy transmits your info to GoodRx when you use it therefore they have your health information. Since GoodRx is not a covered entity under HIPAA, they don’t have to protect your personal health information like healthcare providers. Just a heads up.
Chrose, look into Pharmapassport online. They carry the same pharmacy certification that CVS does. We’ve been using them for 10 years. I get brand only medications from Canada or UK, 90 day supply. There is one flat $10 fee for shipping, so we order everyone’s at once. We were spending $2,000 over 3 months with my insurance copays, now we spend $600 for 3 months. Search on the website for what you need. It takes about 3 weeks to set up a new account and then after that, about 2 weeks to do reorders. It has saved us so much money!
This might be a silly question, which was probably answered before, but couple years back CVS deals were always nicely posted with exact prices, amount of EB etc. there were under $5 transactions step by step. Why did you all quit doing it? It’s not nearly as easy to follow deals when you just circle some of them.
They still post detailed cvs ad deals every week, included in them are prices an extrabucks. Also at the bottom of all the deals they always list a couple transactions.
Type Cvs in the search bar at the top of this website and you will see all the cvs weekly posts.
Thank you! I was looking at the wrong thing where they just preview their weekly sales paper.
Thanks so much for your helpful response, *Angela-Miles*!
You’re very welcome. Glad I could help 😃