Walgreens to acquire remaining stake in CareCentrix for $392M

Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) is accelerating its plan to fully acquire CareCentrix, a post-acute care company.

Walgreens will acquire the remaining 45% stake in CareCentrix for $392 million, after already acquiring a 55% stake for $330 million. CareCentrix provides care coordination and outsourced benefit management services. The company manages care for 19 million members through more than 7,400 provider locations. CareCentrix offers services catered to integrated home care services, including home nursing, durable medical equipment, home infusion and in-home palliative care.

The move brings Walgreens further into the home care sector. 

“We continue to see strong results and potential for growth from our partnership with CareCentrix,” Roz Brewer, CEO of WBA, said in a statement. “Our full acquisition further accelerates our transformation to become a consumer-centric healthcare company, leveraging innovative platforms that extend our capabilities into fast-growing segments of healthcare. CareCentrix is key to offering services to our patients at every stage of the care continuum, and to driving long-term, sustainable growth as part of our U.S. healthcare strategy.”

According WBA, CareCentrix will reach pro forma sales of $1.5 billion. After the acquisition is complete, CareCentrix will retain its brand and remain a distinct business within Walgreens. 

Also under terms of the deal, CareCentrix CEO John Driscoll will assume the new role of vice president and president, U.S. healthcare, including Walgreens Health, at WBA. He will report directly to Brewer and serve on WBA’s executive committee. In this new role, Driscoll will oversee the company’s expansion into larger, faster-growing profit pools “that drive synergies across the care continuum, including provider enablement and managed service organizations, primary care, population health, home health, post-acute care, specialty pharmacy and retail pharmacy,” Walgreens stated. 

The U.S. healthcare business within WBA includes its partners, such as VillageMD, Shields Health Solutions and CareCentrix, as well as its population health efforts and Walgreens Health Corners. Prior to CareCentrix, Driscoll served as president of digital health company Castlight Health. He also previously served as group president for new markets at Medco and founded and chaired the Surescripts ePrescribing Network, the first cross-industry collaborative with competing retail, PBM and health plans cooperating to revolutionize e-prescribing.

Steve Horowitz, CareCentrix CFO, will assume the role of CareCentrix CEO.

Amy Baxter

Amy joined TriMed Media as a Senior Writer for HealthExec after covering home care for three years. When not writing about all things healthcare, she fulfills her lifelong dream of becoming a pirate by sailing in regattas and enjoying rum. Fun fact: she sailed 333 miles across Lake Michigan in the Chicago Yacht Club "Race to Mackinac."

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