Doctor Walmart will see you now
WITH HIS long white coat, stethoscope, genially soothing manner and wonky eagerness to discuss “population health management” and “patient-centred” medicine, Ronald Searcy seems the Platonic ideal of a primary-care doctor. The most unusual thing about him is where he works: a compact facility complete with examination rooms, dentist’s office, phlebotomy lab and X-ray room tucked into a Walmart in north-west Arkansas. Since 2019, Walmart has opened 32 of these “health centres” in five states; by the end of next year it plans to more than double that number, and expand into two more states.
Walmart is not the only big company expanding its medical offerings. Earlier this year Amazon acquired One Medical, a concierge practice (meaning clients pay an annual membership fee) with offices in cities across America. Dollar General, a discount retailer, has set up a partnership with DocGo, which runs mobile health clinics, and has launched a pilot programme at three shops in Tennessee. Walgreens and CVS, both retail pharmacies, have robust primary-care offerings; last year more than 5.5m patients visited a CVS MinuteClinic, making it one of the biggest providers in the country, and earlier this year CVS completed its acquisition of Oak Street Health, an elderly-focused primary-care provider with offices in 21 states. What do these companies see in the medical business? The answer, befitting America’s Byzantine and rent-filled health-care system, is both simple and complex.
Better technology improves VBC, both by giving insurers more health measures to judge a doctor’s success, and by providing doctors with a better way to stay in touch with their patients. Walmart Health and OneMedical, for instance, use apps that show patients their medical history, including upcoming appointments and when they need to repeat their prescriptions. Both of these companies also have in-house pharmacies to which they can direct patients. And the…
2023-06-21 08:44:15
Original from www.economist.com
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