WellPoint Buyout of 80,000-SF RxAmerica Mail-Order Center Ensures Expansion

FT. WORTH-WellPoint Health Networks Inc. has finalized its acquisition of the 80,000-sf RxAmerica mail-order pharmacy fulfillment center in the Fossil Creek industrial park.

“Everything will stay as is,” David Chan, director of RxAmerica’s mail order services, told GlobeSt.com. Everything, that is, except the name. The five-year-old operation at 5450 N. Riverside Dr. is being renamed to Precision Rx Inc.

Michael Nameth, WellPoint Pharmacy’s general manager, says the buyout will bring more jobs to the Ft. Worth area. PrecisionRx will be operating in adjunct to WellPoint Pharmacy Management, the industry’s fourth-largest pharmacy benefits management company and the largest health plan-owned operation in the nation.

Chan says the facility is currently operating at 40% of its capability. “We have a lot of room to grow,” he says. The mail order service’s 180 employees fill about 1.6 million prescriptions per year.

The take-over had been announced earlier this year, with the two companies jointly operating the center until yesterday’s closing. WellPoint is one of the nation’s largest publicly traded health-care companies and has partnered with RxAmerica for several years.

The RxAmerica take-over comes nine months after the buyout of Rush Prudential in the Chicago area. The seven-year-old WellPoint Pharmacy has a 28-million membership nationwide.