This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Walgreens for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

As a medical hospital employee I have spent my fair share on hold with pharmacies and insurance companies trying to get prescriptions to go through patients insurance plans. I happen to be well versed in dealing with Walgreens and Express Scripts. The battle over brand and generic medication rages on everyday because there will always be a difference in opinion of how well a certain brand medication will work verses the generic medication. It all boils down to money though. The insurance companies want to pay the least amount but then you have companies as middleman, ie Express Scripts, that are the go between the insurance companies and the pharmacies and the middleman ends up with the profit.

As of December 31, 2011 Walgreens is no longer part of the Express Scripts Program essentially due to greed and a failure to compromise. Ultimately, though, they are not seeing the big picture which is that they should be helping to ease the financial burden on patients whether it be low cost medication or ease of obtaining said medications at a local pharmacy. Walgreens offered to not increase rates but Express Scripts was having none of that.

Tricare is the insurance that the military uses which is also being affected. Walgreens even offered to separate the Tricare business from the commercial business but that offer was declined as well. I know understand why I have been calling complete medication lists for patients to new pharmacies that have Tricare insurance being serviced by Walgreens. This ends up being undo worry for parents and patients and extra work for the doctors office personnel.

Walgreens is fighting back in a sense though. They are offering their own prescription benefit plan that is affordable for humans and pets if you can believe that. Promotion price for the Prescription Savings Club at Walgreens is $5.00 for individuals and $10.00 for families (immediate family including spouse, dependents 22 and younger, and pets). This promotion price is from January 1 through 31, 2012 for new memberships and renewal memberships. You must not be receiving Medicare, Medicaid, or other federal or state health care to apply for this savings club. Walgreens is offering savings on more than 8,000 medications including discounts for diabetic supplies, nebulizers, pet prescriptions, and flu shots.

Should you wish to continue to support Walgreens please like Walgreens on Facebook and follow Walgreens on Twitter. You can also find the most up to date information as well.

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Sprint for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

If you wanted a new smartphone for Christmas like everybody does and you also want it on 4G nows the time people. Spring is having a 3-Day sale going on right now. You can pick up any Android™ powered EVO 4G devices for FREE plus get your activation waived for new lines of service. I didn't type a misprint folks, the EVO 4G and EVO™ Shift are FREE for a limited time only. If you do not have a store close by you can order it online and receive free shipping from Sprint as well.

Knowing how expensive smartphones are I'd being jumping on that bad boy now if you are in the market for an Android phone. Everybody is wanting the bigger screen and definitely the 4G service. I actually saw someone on twitter the other day complaining they were not receiving the 4G speeds on a non Android phone and found it quite funny because I was receiving it on my phone and we use the same provider. The screens on these phones are really crisp is how I can describe it. Technology has come a long way and you'd swear it wasn't a phone you were looking at sometimes. The choice is a full touch screen or with the Shift a slide out keyboard along with the touchscreen. Get to your nearest Sprint store fast before the deal is gone.

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Slim-Fast for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

About 5-6 years ago I went over to the Weight Management Center here at our campus as they were starting a Slim-Fast study to lose weight. I got accepted and for 2-3 years I was on this study using Slim-Fast shakes and meals bars, meeting with the nurse and dietician at least once a month, and obtaining my coupons for the Slim-Fast product. I also had a regime of exercise that I wrote down in my food intake diary so they could adjust how many calories I needed to go down or up if I was losing too much weight too fast. I ended up losing about 80+ lbs over the course of that time period and now I am in a size 10. The shakes and meal bars are an excellent source of nutrition and most of them taste pretty darn good. I LOVE the Rich Chocolate Royale Slim-Fast shakes as they are the tastiest in my opinion followed by the Creamy Chocolate. I would keep a stash of the shakes in my mini fridge at work as that is what I would drink for breakfast.

Now the way the Slim-Fast 3-2-1 Plan works is that you have 2 Slim-Fast shakes or meal bars, 3 snacks or you can use the Slim-Fast 100-calorie snacks and a balanced meal. This along with exercise will do the trick for weight loss as well as keeping track of what you eat. I've proved that. Now I just watch what I eat to maintain the weight and continue to exercise. You can buy the Slim-Fast shakes at the store or online and be sure to 'Like' Slim-Fast on Facebook.

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Untitled Jersey City Project for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

I have to admit this is becoming more popular than I ever thought. I went to see a new release movie on Friday and one of the trailers before the movie was of the Untitled Jersey City Project. I also keep seeing more commercials about this on the FX Network. It is quite interesting to see how this turns out in each episode. Even though the clips are just under 3 minutes you get enough of the drama to know you want to see what happens next.

In this episode Ray meets with Tyerman in his car before the awards ceremony. I do not think Ray is becoming a good project manager with all of the issues that are going on and him calling on Frank to help clean up messes instead of calling Tyerman. Once in the awards ceremony Ray has a few too many drinks and starts to open his mouth about Tyerman has paid off a few politicians which ultimately questions his ethics. Frank escorts him out of the ceremony and starts to drive off when an associate makes a phone call at the very end. I can only assume in the next episode Ray will no longer be the project manager as he will most likely come to an untimely death. What are your thoughts?

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Untitled Jersey City Project for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

You know I finally saw on the television where they were going to start showing these short episodes of the Untitled Jersey City Project on FX during a movie. I actually got excited when I saw that because at first I thought this was going to be just on the internet and you had to wait for the next episodes to come out. During the first episode we see a man plummet to his death from atop the Waterfront Stadium Project and what looked like to me a friend possibly getting framed for it. This is usually how it goes on murder mystery. The annoying part is having to wait through however many episodes to find out who was behind it and why.

Episode 2 makes it a little more interesting now that, Jane Kaplan, from The Ledger is asking quite a few questions regarding the project to Frank and Ray when who just happens to show up but Mr. Larry Tireman himself as Jane is bad mouthing him. Now this just so happens to be before Frank and Jane start getting busy in his car. From the ending it looks like Mr. Tireman is in the beginning of beating up Ray and then Ray ends up finding or tracking down Frank and busts the car window right before Jane and Frank start getting hot and heavy. It is one of those you see an ending and then go back in time to see how they actually met. Sometimes enemies become your best bed fellows. That usually always backfires though in my opinion and you should never try it. I think Jane will end up dead eventually from meddling too much where she ought not be considering this seems to be a high profile man and he most likely gets what he wants. Two episodes in and 6 more to go. Let's hope they are just as compelling. I could actually see this getting picked up by one of the networks like TNT. Are you guys keeping up?