Why a Wal­greens ex­ec is bet­ting that re­tail phar­ma­cies can be a force to change how health­care’s paid for and de­liv­ered

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Wal­greens is di­al­ing in its ap­proach to build­ing its health­care busi­ness.

On Oct. 10, the com­pa­ny named long­time Cigna ex­ec­u­tive Tim Went­worth as its next CEO, bring­ing in a leader with health­care ex­pe­ri­ence. Two days lat­er, Wal­greens said it plans to make $1 bil­lion in cost cuts — in­clud­ing clos­ing 60 un­der­per­form­ing Vil­lageMD pri­ma­ry care clin­ics in 2024. As it shuts down brick and mor­tar care lo­ca­tions, it’s rolling out a new vir­tu­al care ser­vice in some states lat­er in Oc­to­ber.

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