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Walgreens' ( ) stock is down more than 50% this year as the company continues to face retail headwinds and pivots to a brand new strategy for the pharmacy chain. CEO Tim Wentworth, who has been on the job for eight months, laid out an aggressive plan to revamp the company on its third quarter earnings call Thursday. The future Wentworth envisions is one in which pharmacies are local hubs for healthcare access.

The health ecosystem idealizes pharmacies — chains, independents, and online — as a way to maintain patient health. They have also been in the case of minor healthcare needs ranging from advice on over-the-counter products to helping administer specialty drugs on site. Wentworth wants to double down on that idea by investing in technology to help automate tasks for pharmacists in order to free them up for patients' needs.



"I am confident WBA will be a leader in the future of healthcare, with pharmacy and retail at its center," Wentworth said. However, that strategy hasn't worked in the past. The idea of your friendly neighborhood pharmacist clashes with the economics of running a pharmacy and how they get paid by pharmacy benefit managers.

It's the struggle pharmacies of all sizes face with ever-decreasing reimbursements from the three largest pharmacy benefit managers: CVS Caremark ( ), UnitedHealth's Optum Rx ( ), and Cigna's Express Scripts ( ), where Wentworth previously served as CEO. Wentworth said he is fighting "to align incentives and ensure we are paid fai.

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