MedPartners

Caremark Rx was founded in 1993 in Birmingham as MedPartners Inc. by HealthSouth along with Richard Scrushy, former CEO of HealthSouth, and one time HealthSouth Chief Operating Officer Larry House as a physician practice management (PPM) company. In March 2007 the company merged with industry giant CVS to form the CVS Caremark Corporation.

Caremark International History

In 1978 Baxter Healthcare Corporation of Deerfield, Illinois launched the First National Hemophilia Home Service. In 1983, Baxter started Hemophilia Patient Home Health Care. In 1985, Baxter began providing prescription benefit management services known as Caremark. The company introduced Mail Service Pharmacy, IGIV Home Care Services, and Growth Hormone Distribution and Services. Prescription Health Services (PHS) was purchased in 1991. Due to the expansive growth, the above divisions were spun off from Baxter in 1992 to become Caremark International. The Caremark Formulary was developed and Clinical Intervention Programs were also introduced that year.

MedPartners

After going public in 1995, MedPartners quickly became the largest PPM company through many acquisitions. In 1996, Caremark International was acquired by MedPartners with MedPartners ending up with Caremark's PPM division and prescription benefit management (PBM) and disposing of Caremark's rehabilitation hospitals to HealthSouth.

Refocusing

In 1998, after a failed merger attempt with PhyCor, MedPartners announced that it would suffer a net loss of 800 million dollars. Chairman, President and CEO Larry House resigned with Richard Scrushy acting as interim Chairman, President and CEO. In 1999 Edwin "Mac" Crawford became Chairman, President and CEO. After taking over, Mac Crawford announced that MedPartners was exiting its PPM business and refocusing on its PBM business. MedPartners changed its name to Caremark Rx in 2000, after it had sold all of its PPM practices. In 2001 Richard Scrushy sold his remaining shares in Caremark and left its board to continue as Chairman and CEO of HealthSouth. In 2003, Caremark announced it was moving its corporate headquarters from Birmingham to Nashville, Tennessee.

Advance PCS Merger

In 2004 Caremark merged with AdvancePCS, seen as a key move in ensuring the growth and profitability of the company. By retaining key leaders from the AdvancePCS organization, and adopting many of its key priciples, CaremarkRx was able to bolster its position within the PBM industry.

CVS Merger

On November 1, 2006, Caremark announced it would be merging with the national pharmacy chain CVS. The merger was approved by shareholders on March 16, 2007. The company is now known as CVS Caremark Corporation and is headquartered in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.

External Links

• Caremark's website
• Caremark Shareholders Approve CVS Merger Press release

References

• Caremark Rx. (2007, March 17). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 15:06, March 19, 2007