Home Health Changes Name to Caremark

Home Health Care of America Inc., the Newport Beach-based company that built a nationwide network of in-home intravenous therapy service centers, announced Monday that it is changing its name to Caremark to reflect its expanding operations.

The name change will be effective Wednesday.

The principal catalyst for the change was the company’s January purchase of Federal Prescription Service Inc., a mail-order pharmaceutical distributor based in Des Moines, Iowa. With the acquisition of a drug distribution arm, which the company calls its America’s Pharmacy subsidiary, the firm is branching into other areas of long-term, in-home care.

According to a spokesman, the company has begun offering medication-monitoring services, for conditions ranging from high blood pressure to arthritis, through the pharmaceutical subsidiary. The spokesman said the company plans to announce additional services in the upcoming months.

The operations expansion, however, has not meant the end to the company’s original service: providing intravenous medication and feeding to patients in their homes. The service, which will keep the Home Health Care name, is designed to provide an alternative to more costly and less convenient hospitalization for patients requiring daily or long-term intravenous treatments.