CVS Quits Smoking

05 Feb, 2014

CVS Caremark is kicking the habit of selling tobacco products at its more than 7,600 drugstores nationwide as it focuses more on providing health care.

The nation’s second-largest drugstore chain said Wednesday that it will phase out cigarettes, cigars and chewing tobacco by Oct. 1, a move that will cost about $2 billion in annual revenue but won’t affect its 2014 earnings forecast. CVS Caremark leaders say removing tobacco will help them grow the company’s business of working with doctors, hospitals and other care providers to improve customers’ health.

CVS Caremark Corp. and other major drugstore chains have been adding clinics to their stores and expanding their health care focus for several years now. They’ve been preparing, in part, for an aging U.S. population that will need more care and for the millions of people who are expected to gain health insurance coverage under the federal health care overhaul.

Their pharmacists deliver flu shots and other immunizations, and their clinics also have been expanding the scope of care they deliver. They now help people manage chronic illnesses like high blood pressure and diabetes in addition to treating relatively minor problems like sinus infections.

CEO Larry Merlo noted that chronic conditions are made worse by smoking.

“We’ve come to the conclusion that cigarettes have no place in a setting where health care is being delivered,” he said.

The drugstore chain also plans to expand its smoking cessation efforts. That includes training its pharmacists to counsel people on how to quit smoking.

AP

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