I'm delighted! I own stock in Aetna! :)

I'm not delighted. My (few) prescriptions come from CVS.

So now you'll get your medical care from a minimum-wage worker?

It may be great for it’s investors but considering it’s healthcare, shouldn’t that be a secondary consideration? If you look at it from just the perspective of how it will affect care, I think it has the potential to be a big problem.

Sounds like a monopoly to me.

I just hope the government knows what they are doing. I used to get my prescriptions from Giant Eagle, but was told to stop and go to CVS for a 3 month supply. I was told I could stay with Giant Eagle but will have to pay full cost. So I have no choice in the matter. I can't wait to see what happens now. Will my prescription price go up now? We'll see.

Customers are not high on the agenda for CVS/Aetna merger.

A few years ago (before we were eligible for Medicare) we were required by our insurance carrier to use CVS mail order for our prescriptions. More often than not, they got our orders wrong. It was always something. Once they even substituded one large vial of liquid meds for 3 small ones. The result? The large vial expired before I could use it as directed by my doctor, leaving me with no med for the last month. On top of that--they charged me more! Their reason? They no longer carry the one month supply smaller vials.

Another time they sent me (AND CHARGED ME FOR!!) 12 packs of 12 of a certain med, instead of 1 pack of 12. Their reason? The doctor had written the Rx incorrectly. I had proof, in the form of the fax'd Rx, that it was written correctly.

After several long and frustrating phone calls to CVS and our insurance company, I was finally refunded the excess charge, which was around $200! The extra medication was wasted--I just recycled it.

These are just 2 of our many issues with CVS. I pity those who will have to deal with them on a regular basis.

Don't even get me started on our poor experience with Aetna.

The state of health care in our country is truly frightening!

The government does know what its doing. Helping large companies get larger so they can better crush their smaller competitors, better engage in monopolistic pricing practices, and gouge ever more money out of customers.

Despite the claims that the companies and proponents of mergers always spout about efficiencies and lower costs that could be passed along to customers, the actuality is nearly all of the massive mergers are bad for consumers, and according to some recent articles, bad for the country as a whole. Congress tacitly acknowledged this when American Airlines was merging with US Air. They realized that it would give them fewer options and therefore higher prices for flights they take out of Reagan National Airport, and demanded that some of the gates at that airport be made available to other airlines. Then once they personally wouldn't be adversely affected by that merger, they allowed it to move forward.

Locally we've used a small independently owned pharmacy in a small strip mall across from a larger shopping center that contains a CVS. Largely because you can call in a prescription and go there and they have it ready, as opposed to CVS where irrespective of how far in advance you send your prescription to them, it still always takes about 45 minutes for them to fill it. I believe it is corporate policy to keep you there, to encourage you to buy other stuff from their store while you wait for them to call your number.

This spring CVS contacted the owners of the small strip mall about building a new CVS store on that site in the place of a couple of more or less empty businesses. However they demanded that the owners refuse to renew the lease of the small independently owned pharmacy that had been there as good tenants for decades.

Now the small pharmacy is out of business, and I wouldn't be surprised if the new CVS building is never built, since there is and has been one right across the street.

Last year our insurance dropped CVS. We had been using CVS for years and knew the pharmacist well. Unfortunately we transferred everything to Walgreens and they continually mess up our meds. And never have our meds in Stock. They send me a text that it's time to refill something so I agree, then they are out of the meds but don't bother to let me know that. I show up to pick up the order and discover they never ordered it. Do frustrating. We will be changing soon.

I don't think it matters what chain you use; they all work their pharmacists to death. We use whichever chain our current Plan D favors. That goes back and forth between Walgreens and CVS. Several years ago our plans were OK with Osco. It was convenient to grocery shop and pick up a prescription in one place.

Sorry, I got off message here. I think the merger of an insurance company and a dispensing pharmacy (and general store) is weird.

Luckily, can use Costco.

Health care provider/CVS Minute Clinics owning the insurance company......

I think this deal is positive for both companies, however, it is not a done deal until it passes the regulators, and I think they will be crawling all over this one. The regulators may require that these businesses divest a portion of themselves. Depending on what that divestiture is, it cold kill the deal.

This combination is a bit of a stretch, an insurer who pays for prescription and a company who fills prescription seems a too cozy to me. I don't see this as positive for the consumer.

We were told CVS is the preferred prescription filler last year. We tried them and weren't pleased. So we went back to Walgreens where we have been happy customers for years. We've getting too damn old to fix what ain't broke.

An article I saw said this could be good for consumers as prescription management companies that stand between insurance companies and pharmacies, like Express Scripts, contribute to high prices and cost inflation.

We only have a few prescriptions but we've had good experience with CVS. In my area Walgreens seems to be more of a high volume, lower quality place.

Our health insurer is Aetna. At present we must use Express Scripts as our long term prescription filler. We can fill rx's for short term use at any local pharmacy. It will be interesting to see what changes this merger will bring. It makes ne a little nervous to think about it.

I was abroad and using my smartphone and so missed the graphic in mdln's comment above.

There is an existing entity in the healthcare world that is both "insurer" and provider rolled into one and it's been a successful model for both patients and providers.

It's Kaiser Permanente, founded in 1945. It's a bit too NHS-ish for my taste and always has been - the precursor of HMO attitudes and practices in one sense while being an integrated entity. But, for decades and decades it has provided decent care to millions of people at very low per capita costs. And it still does.

The best way to reduce insurance costs and health costs in general is to reduce insurance reimbursements for physician and hospital services. They've increased at greater rates and are far more out of control than drug costs yet the docs continue to get away with murder. THESE are among the reasons for out of control insurance costs, much more so than the peripheral political matters that one party likes to scream about (with more noise than insight)

I had an oddball incident a couple of years ago. My PCP told me to go to an ER. It turned out to be a no-problem problem but with symptoms of more serious things. After a few not too extensive tests - a couple of x-rays, no CT or MRI scans, and some observation, I went home with crutches and a $6K bill.

Please folks, use your local owned pharmacies! The service is much better, my typical wait has been less then fifteen minutes.

I've had a prescription called into CVS on a Thursday. I needed the medication that day. However CVS will not fill a called-in prescription the same day per their policy. The next Tuesday, CVS called that they had just filled the prescription. Their typical service is not good enough for me.

http://a.msn.com/r/2/BBGim91?m=en-us&a=1

@ raye, I've had no problem w/ CVS filling called in Rx's on the same day.

When I called CVS to ask why the prescription wasn't filled that day the pharmacists told me that their policy was to listen to the calls the next day and fill them when they had free time.

The convenience of using a multi location company for drugs like CVS, including the ability to fill prescriptions at a distant location when out of town if something is due or was left at home, is of great value to me.

Almost all docs days transmit prescriptions electronically and "immediate" orders are just that. The few times I've needed that, like for an antibiotic or whatever, the prescription was filled and waiting for me by the time I'd driven directly to CVS.

CVS does provide a service where they call you to notify you that your prescription is ready. I've received a half-dozen such calls from them for someone else in a different city. Helpful.

In addition to them having put the locally owned pharmacy that we used out of business, I also remembered that they moved into a mostly vacant space in the campus business district but they demanded that a small restaurant, that happened to be one of my favorites, in the back of that space be forced to move out.

I have no reverence or affection at all for what some want to lovingly refer to as "locally owned" businesses. To me, the connotation is higher prices, lower quality, less selection.

There's a "locally owned" store with lots of organic and healthy food items almost across the street from a Whole Foods. Many tout it in a "support your local businesses" way. The prices are higher (believe it or not), out of date food items are numerous on the shelves, and the produce is often very tattered looking. Where Whole Foods puts an emphasis on locally sourced meat and seafood items, the other place competes with meat and seafood from very far away places. In comparing the two, there's really no good reason at all to go to the locally owned store - unless you want to pay more for inferior products.

I don't often take prescription drugs and would have no need to have them filled out-of-town. That's too bad about your local pharmacy and restaurant being closed. I've never received good service at the bit chains so I won't use them.

Have to agree with Elmer. The small pharmacy is not as convenient. They are not open 24 hours like many CVSs and Walgreens. Service depends on the staff and the pharmacist. I live quite close to both CVS and Walgreens. In fact several of each. The 24 hour Walgreens is closer and more convenient than the 24 hour CVS. If they change I would switch. in fact we have used both. Once when one was out of a drug the other one had it.

Our family used a local pharmacy, which then became a Rexall, which eventually was driven out of business by Walgreens. The owner/pharmacist delivered -- but that was back when the MD made house calls, too.

Our family shopped at a locally owned grocery, which became an IGA, which was eventually driven out of business by Jewel (chain grocer).

Back then, nobody was open 24/7 -- but the local pharmacist would open and dispense in an emergency. Now everything is open every hour of every day. With our verbal permission, our medical records are electronically available to every MD in our area -- and beyond. Every chain pharmacy everywhere can retrieve and fill every prescription filed for us at any chain in the USA. Every pharmacy knows which insurance agency to call to approve payment.

We do not currently have insurance through Aetna, although they were excellent in the years they were our insurer, though DH's company. Maybe those of you who do use Aetna *and* CVS will tell us if there are changes -- good ones or bad ones?

Thanks, that's another good reason to not go to one of the big chains. Sad to think that patients privacy is non-existent. Nothing here is open 24 hours and most stores don't open before 10a.m.

Here's something else to think about, most of those records contain multiple mistakes. I've had friends tell me about discovering wrong entries about medication allergies, diagnosis and personal data such as weight.