The transaction includes a 10-year contract for Express Scripts to provide services to WellPoint following closing of the transaction.
The transition to Express Scripts’s platform and products will be staged to ensure consistency of benefits and pharmacy services to members. WellPoint will retain control of medical policy, formulary and integrated disease management, and will work alongside Express Scripts to offer pharmacy management and data analytics. WellPoint members will gain access to better web, home delivery and customer service capabilities, and clients will benefit from enhanced reporting.
The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2009, subject to customary closing conditions and the expiration of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act.
George Paz, chairman and CEO of Express Scripts, said: “As we apply our advanced understanding of consumer behavior to an additional 25 million members, and manage more than 750 million adjusted prescriptions annually, we will optimize the cross-selling of trend management tools such as generics, home delivery and specialty pharmacy. This alliance also creates the potential to leverage our behavior-centric approach across the medical benefit.”