Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Brooks O’Neil - Dougherty & Co.
Brooks O’Neil - Dougherty & Co.
I have a number of questions. I guess first, I’m curious if you have seen any changes in the business or your outlook over the last month or two in relation to the slowing economy?
Hai Tran
Well Brooks, on that we have noticed a slowdown in prescription utilization and I think that is consistent with what has been reported by IMS across the country, but the prescription utilization is just simply slowing down.
David Blair
Yes clearly, I think as we’ve indicated on the earnings release as well as our prepared remarks, we factored that in as we looked towards guidance for 2009.
Brooks O’Neil - Dougherty & Company
Secondly, can you comment at all on how integration efforts are going particularly with both HospiScript and IPS? I know you had a few comments in your prepared remarks, but are those acquisitions on target from an integration perspective and do you continue to expect around $0.08 or $0.09 of accretion from the HospiScript deal next year?
David Blair
Yes, I think that the integration of HospiScript is doing well. We continue to believe that that we’ll be able to fully integrate them in the first half of 2009 typically as we talked about previously. It takes about a good year for us to integrating an acquisition of that size. So I think that we are on track or fact ahead of schedule relative to that rule of thumb.
Brooks O’Neil - Dougherty & Company
Third question, I’m curious; obviously Hai, you and I talked a little bit about the fact that with relatively modest overall growth in prescription drug trend, cost trends, employers have less incentive to move their business at this time. On the other hand, I was listening to the Medco call just a little while ago and they seem to say that some clients are frustrated with inefficient pharmacy utilization and hence looking for ways to encourage employees and members to be more intelligent in their purchasing trends. How do those factors weigh out for you guys and how do you feel about the $300 million of net new business you’ve signed so far this year?
Hai Tran
Well, as we look at our sales opportunity, there’s a couple of different things going on; one, we’re responding to more RPs now than we have historically and not only are we responding to more RPs, we’re being much more selective than we have in years past and you’re well aware of why we’re responding to more RPs instead of better brand recognition; our name is out there in more parts of the country, etc.
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