Kroger Health and Prime Therapeutics Announce Direct Agreement Continuing Access to More than 33 Million Americans

Agreement increases health access, delivers pricing transparency and helps ensure affordable prices for commercial, Medicare and Medicaid customers

CINCINNATI, Dec. 16, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Kroger Health, the healthcare division of The Kroger Co. (Kroger) (NYSE: KR), and its Family of Pharmacies and Prime Therapeutics LLC (Prime), a diversified pharmacy benefit manager collectively owned by Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans that serves more than 33 million people, announced a direct agreement for the Kroger Family of Pharmacies to remain in-network effective January 1, 2023.

"Kroger is always looking for new opportunities and collaborations to make Medicare more accessible, and our direct agreement with Prime delivers benefits for our customers and for the thousands of communities we operate in daily," said Colleen Lindholz, president of Kroger Health. "We look forward to working collaboratively to improve the health outcomes of our collective customers by increasing health access, delivering pricing transparency and ensuring affordable prices."

"It was critical for Prime to maintain the Kroger Family of Pharmacies as an option for our members in our network of high-quality pharmacy providers given their strong record of meeting and exceeding Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS) quality metrics," said Dave Schlett, executive vice President, president, PBM solutions, Prime Therapeutics. "Prime and Kroger share a common focus on member-centered care and providing our members continued access to the Kroger Family of Pharmacies."

This direct agreement demonstrates a continued commitment to provide millions of patients with quality, affordable healthcare services.

While the Kroger Family of Pharmacies will not be in the ESI network for 2023, it continues to participate in many other pharmacy benefit networks, for example the Prime network.  In addition, people may continue to fill prescriptions at Kroger Family of Pharmacies through other options. For example, people may want to join the Kroger Rx Savings Club, use a third-party discount card or manufacturer coupon when eligible to purchase a drug, or pay the retail cash price.

Additional network information can be found at the following link: kroger.com/payorupdate.

What This Means for Medicare Part D Customers in 2023

The direct agreement with Prime will prevent disruption to Prime's Medicare Part D members mitigating the end of year Kroger termination with Express Scripts while continuing health access, delivering pricing transparency and helping to ensure affordable prices.

The Kroger Family of Pharmacies remains in-network for Prime's Medicare Part D Plan clients and nearly all national and regional Medicare Part D plans.

Key Facts

• Kroger Health is proud to provide pharmacy services for its 17 million patients—enhancing their health, wellness and nutrition.
• Kroger is committed to providing quality, affordable healthcare services to its customers around the country. This includes:
• Administering more than 11 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines
• Offering more than 700,000 in-store anti-body tests
• Distributing more than three million at-home Covid-19 tests
• Providing $180,000 in free prescription deliveries and transportation for customers to receive vaccines

About Kroger Health

Kroger Health, the healthcare division of The Kroger Co., is one of America's leading retail healthcare organizations, with over 2,200 pharmacies and 220 clinics in 35 states serving more than 17 million customers annually. Our team of 24,000 healthcare practitioners - from pharmacists and nurse practitioners to dietitians and technicians – are committed to helping people live healthier lives. We believe in practicing at the top of our licenses and enabling "food as medicine" to help prevent or manage certain diseases.

About Kroger

At The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR), we are dedicated to our Purpose: To Feed the Human Spirit™. We are, across our family of companies nearly half a million associates who serve over 11 million customers daily through a seamless digital shopping experience and retail food stores under a variety of banner names, serving America through food inspiration and uplift, and creating #ZeroHungerZeroWaste communities by 2025. To learn more about us, visit our newsroom and investor relations site.

About Prime Therapeutics + Magellan Rx 
Prime Therapeutics LLC (Prime) is a diversified pharmacy solutions organization serving health plans, employers and government programs. Prime is collectively owned by 19 Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans, subsidiaries or affiliates of those plans. Magellan Rx Management, a Prime Therapeutics LLC Company, is a pioneer in specialty and medical drug management and a leader in serving public sector state government programs. Together Prime and Magellan Rx provide a wide range of clients with solutions that bridge the distance between medical and pharmacy management. For more information visit www.primetherapeutics.com and www.magellanrx.com, or follow us on Twitter at @Prime_PBM and @Magellan_Rx.  

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SOURCE The Kroger Co.