CVS Corporation
Encyclopedia
CVS Pharmacy, or simply CVS, is the second largest pharmacy chain
Chain store
Chain stores are retail outlets that share a brand and central management, and usually have standardized business methods and practices. These characteristics also apply to chain restaurants and some service-oriented chain businesses. In retail, dining and many service categories, chain businesses...

 in the United States (after Walgreens
Walgreens
Walgreen Co. , doing business as Walgreens , is the largest drugstore chain in the United States of America. As of August 31st, the company operates 8,210 locations across all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Founded in Chicago, Illinois in 1901, and has since expanded...

), with over 7,000 stores in 41 states and Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

. As the retail pharmacy division of CVS Caremark
CVS Caremark
CVS Caremark Corporation is an integrated pharmacy services provider, combining a United States pharmaceutical services company with a U.S. pharmacy chain...

, it sells prescription drugs and a wide assortment of general merchandise, including over-the-counter drugs, beauty products and cosmetics, film and photo finishing services, seasonal merchandise, greeting cards and convenience foods through their CVS Pharmacy and Longs Drugs
Longs Drugs
Longs Drugs is an American chain of over 40 drug stores throughout the State of Hawaii. Before being acquired by CVS Caremark in 2008, it was a chain of over 500 stores, located primarily on the West Coast of the United States...

 retail stores and online through CVS.com. It also provides healthcare services through its MinuteClinic
MinuteClinic
MinuteClinic, a subsidiary of CVS Caremark Corporation, is the largest provider of retail health clinics in the United States. As of December 31, 2009, it operated 569 clinics in 25 states...

 healthcare clinics as well as their Diabetes Care Centers. Most of these clinics are located within CVS stores.

CVS is incorporated in Delaware
Delaware corporation
The Delaware General Corporation Law is the statute governing corporate law in the state of Delaware. Delaware is well known as a corporate haven. Over 50% of U.S...

, and is based in Woonsocket, Rhode Island
Woonsocket, Rhode Island
Woonsocket is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 41,186 at the 2010 census, making it the sixth largest city in the state. Woonsocket lies directly south of the Massachusetts border....

. It was founded in Lowell, Massachusetts
Lowell, Massachusetts
Lowell is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA. According to the 2010 census, the city's population was 106,519. It is the fourth largest city in the state. Lowell and Cambridge are the county seats of Middlesex County...

 in 1963.

Name

CVS Pharmacy used to be a subsidiary of Melville Corporation
Melville Corporation
Melville Corporation, formerly based in Rye, New York, was a large retail holding corporation incorporated in 1922 as the Melville Shoe company by Ward Melville. It changed its name to CVS Corporation in 1996...

, where its full name was initially Consumer Value Stores. Melville later changed its name to CVS Corporation in 1996, after Melville sold off all of its non-pharmacy stores.

Former CEO Tom Ryan has said he now considers "CVS" to stand for "Customer, Value, and Service".

During the company's days as a regional chain in the Northeastern U.S., many of CVS' stores did not include pharmacies, as in some jurisdictions, pharmacies are required to label themselves as such.

Today, the company seldom builds new stores without pharmacies, and is gradually phasing out these shops that remain outside of New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

. Any new non-pharmacy store is usually built in a more urban setting, where another CVS with a pharmacy exists within walking distance, such as downtown Boston or Providence
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...

. These stores usually lack a pharmacy and a photo center, but carry most of the general merchandise items that a normal CVS Pharmacy carries, such as health and beauty items, sundries, and food items.

Acquisitions and growth

  • In 1964, CVS had 17 stores that sold primarily health and beauty products.
  • In 1967, CVS began operation of its first stores with pharmacy departments, opening locations in Warwick
    Warwick, Rhode Island
    Warwick is a city in Kent County, Rhode Island, United States. It is the second largest city in the state, with a population of 82,672 at the 2010 census. Its mayor has been Scott Avedisian since 2000...

     and Cumberland
    Cumberland, Rhode Island
    Cumberland is a town in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States, incorporated in 1746. The population was 33,506 at the 2010 census.-History:...

    , Rhode Island
    Rhode Island
    The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...

    .
  • CVS was acquired by the now-defunct Melville Corporation
    Melville Corporation
    Melville Corporation, formerly based in Rye, New York, was a large retail holding corporation incorporated in 1922 as the Melville Shoe company by Ward Melville. It changed its name to CVS Corporation in 1996...

     in 1969, boosting its growth.
  • By 1970, CVS operated 100 stores in New England
    New England
    New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

     and the Northeast.
  • In 1972, CVS nearly doubled in size with its acquisition of 84 Clinton Drug and Discount Stores. The purchase introduced CVS to the Midwest with stores in Indiana.
  • In 1977, CVS acquired the 36-store New Jersey-based Mack Drug chain.
  • In 1980, CVS became the 15th largest pharmacy chain in the U.S. with 408 stores and $414 million in sales.
  • In 1988, CVS celebrated its 25th anniversary, finishing the year with nearly 750 stores and sales of about $1.6 billion.
  • In 1990, CVS acquired the 500-store Peoples Drug
    Peoples Drug
    Peoples Drug was a chain of drug stores based in Alexandria, VA, a suburb of Washington, D.C.. Founded in 1904, Peoples was subsequently purchased by Lane Drug in 1975, Imasco in 1984, and finally by CVS in 1990, which continued to run the stores under the Peoples banner until 1994, at which time...

     chain, which established the company in new mid-Atlantic markets including Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. The newly acquired stores were converted to CVS stores.
  • Also in 1990, CVS bought the 23-store Rix Dunnington chain.
  • In 1993, CVS withdrew from the southern California market.
  • Until 1996, CVS was a division of Melville Corporation
    Melville Corporation
    Melville Corporation, formerly based in Rye, New York, was a large retail holding corporation incorporated in 1922 as the Melville Shoe company by Ward Melville. It changed its name to CVS Corporation in 1996...

    . During that year, Melville divested its other subsidiary retail chains, which included Linens 'n Things
    Linens 'n Things
    Linens 'n Things is an online retailer of home textiles, housewares and decorative home accessories. Until 2008, the company also did business as a big box retailer under the name Linens 'n Things, Inc., headquartered in Clifton, New Jersey, United States, and did business across the United States...

    , KB Toys
    KB Toys
    K·B Toys was a chain of mall-based retail toy stores in the United States. It was founded in 1922 by the Kaufman brothers. K·B operated 605 stores in 44 U.S. states, Puerto Rico as well as Guam. It was privately held in Pittsfield, Massachusetts...

    , and Marshalls
    Marshalls
    Marshalls, Inc., is a chain of American department stores owned by TJX Companies. Marshalls has over 750 conventional stores, as well as larger stores named Marshalls Mega Store, covering 42 states and Puerto Rico. Marshalls expanded into Canada in March 2011...

    , and changed its name to CVS Corporation. Formerly traded as MVL on the New York Stock Exchange
    New York Stock Exchange
    The New York Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at 13.39 trillion as of Dec 2010...

    , the company now trades under the symbol CVS.
  • In 1997, CVS more than doubled its 1,400 stores after purchasing the 2,500-store Revco
    Revco
    Revco Discount Drug Stores , once based in Twinsburg, Ohio, was a major drug store chain operating through the Ohio Valley, the Mid-Atlantic states, and the Southeastern United States. The chain's stock was traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker RXR...

     chain. The acquisition brought CVS into the Ohio Valley and southeastern United States
    Southeastern United States
    The Southeastern United States, colloquially referred to as the Southeast, is the eastern portion of the Southern United States. It is one of the most populous regions in the United States of America....

    ; previously, the company's footprint had not been south of Virginia
    Virginia
    The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

    . CVS was able to afford so large a purchase because of its recent Melville divestiture.
  • In 1998, CVS acquired 207 stores from Arbor Drugs
    Arbor Drugs
    Arbor Drugs was a chain of drug stores based in Troy, Michigan.It was founded by Eugene Applebaum and Bruno Manni in 1974, when they merged five stores and incorporated the chain under the Arbor name. In 1986, the chain went public, opening on NASDAQ under the stock symbol ARBR...

    , bringing its store total to 4,100 across 24 states. The transaction gave CVS its first stores in Michigan and an instant lead in the highly competitive Detroit market.
  • In 1999, CVS acquired Soma.com, the first online pharmacy
    Online pharmacy
    Online pharmacies, Internet pharmacies, or Mail Order Pharmacies are pharmacies that operate over the Internet and send the orders to customers.Online or internet pharmacies might include:...

    , and renamed it CVS.com. This allowed CVS to become the first fully integrated online and brick-and-mortar pharmacy.
  • In 2004, CVS purchased 1,268 Eckerd drug stores, as well as Eckerd Health Services, a PBM/Mail-order pharmacy business, from J. C. Penney
    J. C. Penney
    -External links:*...

    . Most of the former Eckerd stores, which were converted to CVS stores by June, are located in Florida
    Florida
    Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

     and Texas
    Texas
    Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

    , as well as other southeastern states
    Southern United States
    The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...

    . Because J. C. Penney credit cards were accepted at Eckerd locations, CVS continues to accept them as well.
  • On January 23, 2006, CVS announced that it had agreed to acquire the freestanding drug store operations of supermarket chain Albertsons. The deal included the acquisition of 700 drug stores trading under the Osco Drug
    Osco Drug
    Osco Drug is a chain of pharmacy stores which today operate as in-store pharmacies under SuperValu Pharmacies. Osco Pharmacy is found in Jewel-Osco, Albertsons, Shaw's and Star Market, while Sav-on Pharmacy is found in Acme and Albertsons. Since 2006, Osco is a wholly owned subsidiary of...

     and Sav-On Drugs banners, mostly in the midwestern and southwestern United States with primary concentration of stores in southern California and the Chicago area, and was formally completed on June 2, 2006. Transition of Sav-On and Osco stores to the CVS brand began shortly thereafter, and was completed by December 2006. CVS now dominates the southern California market. Also included were Albertsons Health'n'Home (now CVS Home Health) durable medical equipment stores. Approximately 28 CVS Home Health locations are present in Arizona, California and the Kansas City area, representing CVS' first venture into the specialized DME market.
    CVS had previously operated stores in southern California, but completely withdrew from the market in 1993. CVS sold virtually all of the locations to Sav-On's then owner American Stores
    American Stores
    American Stores Company was an American public corporation and a holding company which ran chains of supermarkets and drugstores in the United States from 1917 through 1999...

    , who operated them under the name American Drug Stores. As a result, many of the stores CVS gained in January 2006 had been the stores it owned prior to 1993. Before their re-acquisition, the stores were operated under the name Sav-On Express (the Express name was used to help customers identify those stores that did not carry all the lines of merchandise as compared to the larger, traditional Sav-On Drugs locations). CVS now operates over 6,200 stores in 43 states and the District of Columbia. In some locations CVS now has two stores less than two blocks apart.

  • On July 13, 2006, CVS announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Minneapolis-based MinuteClinic
    MinuteClinic
    MinuteClinic, a subsidiary of CVS Caremark Corporation, is the largest provider of retail health clinics in the United States. As of December 31, 2009, it operated 569 clinics in 25 states...

    , the pioneer and largest provider of retail-based health clinics in the U.S. MinuteClinic operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of CVS Corporation. MinuteClinic health care centers are staffed by board-certified nurse practitioners and physician assistants who are trained to diagnose and treat common family illnesses such as strep throat and ear, eye, sinus, bladder and bronchial infections, and provide prescriptions when clinically appropriate. MinuteClinic also offers common vaccinations, such as flu shots, tetanus, and Hepatitis A & B. The clinics are supported by physicians who collaborate with the physician assistants and nurse practitioners. There are currently over 550 locations across the United States, most of which are within CVS Pharmacy locations.
  • On November 1, 2006, CVS announced that it was entering into a purchase agreement with Nashville-based Caremark Rx Inc., a pharmacy benefits manager. The new company is called CVS Caremark Corporation
    CVS Caremark
    CVS Caremark Corporation is an integrated pharmacy services provider, combining a United States pharmaceutical services company with a U.S. pharmacy chain...

    and the corporate headquarters remains in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. The new pharmacy services business, including the combined pharmacy benefits management (PBM), specialty pharmacy, and disease management businesses, is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. The new CVS Caremark Corporation is expected to achieve about $75 billion in yearly revenue for 2007. The merger was formally completed on March 22, 2007. Tom Ryan, CVS's Chairman and CEO, remains president and CEO of the combined company, while Caremark's President and CEO, Mac Crawford, is Chairman of the Board.
  • On November 7, 2007, Mac Crawford stepped down as Chairman of the Board for CVS Caremark. He was replaced by President and CEO of CVS Caremark, Tom Ryan.
  • On August 12, 2008, CVS Pharmacy announced that it would acquire Longs Drugs
    Longs Drugs
    Longs Drugs is an American chain of over 40 drug stores throughout the State of Hawaii. Before being acquired by CVS Caremark in 2008, it was a chain of over 500 stores, located primarily on the West Coast of the United States...

     for $2.9 billion. Walgreens made a counteroffer, but dropped it. The deal closed Oct 30, 2008.

Online

The domain cvs.com attracted at least 26 million visitors annually by 2008 according to a Compete.com
Compete.com
Compete.com is a web traffic analysis service of Compete, Inc. which operates in the United States and publishes the approximate number of global visitors to the top 1,000,000 web sites in the world...

 survey.

CVS no longer owns the soma.com domain name, which it acquired with the purchase of online drugstore pioneer Soma. The domain name now belongs to a lingerie retailer.

Environmental record

In 2005, CVS participated in a program to reduce the pollution of Maine's waterways. CVS agreed to accept drugs for disposal, so that people would not dispose of them in ways that reach rivers and other bodies of waters.

Controversies

Executives accused of bribing State Senator

Former CVS executives John R. Kramer and Carlos Ortiz were charged with bribery, conspiracy, and fraud (including mail fraud) by a federal grand jury for allegedly paying State Senator John A. Celona (D-RI) to act as a "consultant" for the company. Between February 2000 and September 2003, CVS paid Celona $1,000 a month, and he received tickets to golf outings and sporting events and compensation for travel to Florida and California. In August 2005, he pleaded guilty to mail fraud charges, and in January 2007, he was fined a record $130,000 by the Rhode Island Ethics Committee. The investigation was led by the FBI and the Rhode Island State Police, and the case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Gerard B. Sullivan and Dulce Donovan. Additional information is available in a press release from the FBI's Boston field office.

Prescription errors

During 2005 a rash of prescription mistakes came to light in some of CVS Corporation's Boston-area stores. An investigation confirmed 62 errors or quality problems going back to 2002. In February 2006, the state Board of Pharmacy announced that the non-profit Institute of Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) would monitor all Massachusetts stores for the next two years. Later, a 2007 segment on 20/20 accused CVS, Walgreens
Walgreens
Walgreen Co. , doing business as Walgreens , is the largest drugstore chain in the United States of America. As of August 31st, the company operates 8,210 locations across all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Founded in Chicago, Illinois in 1901, and has since expanded...

 and Rite Aid
Rite Aid
Rite Aid is a drugstore chain in the United States and a Fortune 500 company headquartered in East Pennsboro Township, Pennsylvania, near Camp Hill. Rite Aid is the largest drugstore chain on the East Coast and the third largest drugstore chain in the U.S....

 among other pharmacies, of making various prescription dispensing errors. This segment aired in March 2007 and was called "ABC News '20/20' Undercover Pharmacy Investigation". CVS responded by claiming they have designed and invested millions of dollars in a comprehensive quality assurance program.

Texas lawsuit over illegally dumping patient information

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott sued CVS in April 2007, for illegally dumping confidential patient information while closing an acquired Eckerd store in Liberty, Texas
Liberty, Texas
Liberty is a city in and the county seat of Liberty County, Texas, United States and a part of the Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown metropolitan area. The population was 8,033 at the 2000 census....

. CVS is accused of breaking the 2005 Identity Theft Enforcement and Protection Act. There are also other possible violations under the violations under Chapter 35 of the Business and Commerce Code. CVS settled by paying $315,000 to the state and agreeing to overhaul its information security system.

Cigarette sales

In 2007 CEO Thomas Ryan said the company was considering halting the sale of cigarettes within its pharmacies but has not done so, citing internal market research that discovered ceasing cigarette sales will not change consumer behaviour (of buying cigarettes). This contradictory approach to selling healthcare products and harmful products such as cigarettes on the same premises has drawn CVS and other pharmacies who continue the practice considerable criticism, including some regional bans on the practice.

Deceptive business practices

In February 2008, CVS settled a large civil lawsuit for deceptive business practices. The Kaiser Family Foundation
Kaiser Family Foundation
The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation , or just Kaiser Family Foundation, is a U.S.-based non-profit, private operating foundation headquartered in Menlo Park, California. It focuses on the major health care issues facing the nation, as well as the U.S. role in global health policy...

 reported:

CVS Caremark has agreed to a a $38.5 million settlement in a multi-state civil deceptive-practices lawsuit against pharmacy benefit manager Caremark filed by 28 attorneys general, the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...

reports. The attorneys general, led by Lisa Madigan (D) of Illinois and Douglas Ganslar (D) of Maryland, allege that Caremark "engaged in deceptive business practices" by informing physicians that patients or health plans could save money if patients were switched to certain brand-name prescription drugs (Miller, Chicago Tribune, 2/14).


However, the switch often saved patients and health plans only small amounts or increased their costs, while increasing Caremark's profits, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal (D) said (Levick, Hartford Courant, 2/15). Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett (R) said the PBM kept discounts and rebates that should have been passed on to employers and patients (Levy, AP
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...

/San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...

, 2/14). In addition, Caremark did not "adequately inform doctors" of the full financial effect of the switch and did not disclose that the switch would increase Caremark's profits, the lawsuit alleges (Chicago Tribune, 2/14).


...The settlement prohibits Caremark from requesting prescription drug switches in certain cases, such as when the cost to the patient would be higher with the new prescription drug; when the original prescription drug's patent will expire within six months; and when patients were switched from a similar prescription drug within the previous two years (Hartford Courant, 2/15). Patients also have the ability to decline a switch from the prescribed treatment to the prescription offered by the pharmacy under the settlement, Madigan said (Bloomberg News/Philadelphia Inquirer, 2/15).

Methamphetamine lawsuit

On October 14, 2010, CVS was ordered to pay 77.6 million dollars in fines and returned profits stemming from a lawsuit alleging improper control in the sale of an ingredient used to make methamphetamine. CVS will forfeit 2.6 million in profits from the illegal sale of pseudophedrine as well as have to pay a fine of 75 million dollars, the largest civil penalty ever paid under the Controlled Substances Act
Controlled Substances Act
The Controlled Substances Act was enacted into law by the Congress of the United States as Title II of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970. The CSA is the federal U.S. drug policy under which the manufacture, importation, possession, use and distribution of certain...

.

Homeopathy

On April 1 2011, the James Randi Educational Foundation
James Randi Educational Foundation
The James Randi Educational Foundation is a non-profit organization founded in 1996 by magician and skeptic James Randi. The JREF's mission includes educating the public and the media on the dangers of accepting unproven claims, and to support research into paranormal claims in controlled...

 awarded CVS Pharmacy the tongue-in-cheek Pigasus Award
Pigasus Award
The Pigasus Award is the name of an annual tongue-in-cheek honor recognized by noted skeptic James Randi. The awards seek to expose parapsychological, paranormal or psychic frauds that Randi has noted over the previous year...

 for selling homeopathic remedies alongside medicines recognized by science.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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