Walmart, the the public’s biggest retailer, is moving deeper into the primary care and mental health market, opening a new clinic requested Walmart Health in Georgia.
The company recently updated its website with a link to Walmart Health, describing its “freshest location in Dallas, GA.” It also went online with the site “Walmarthealth.com,” where patients can set up appointments. Walmart is evaluating the concept with the initial clinic and could open more in the future, according to people familiar with the proceeding who asked not to be named because the plans are confidential.
The Dallas location, which is set to open its doors next month, ordain give patients access to comprehensive and low-cost primary care, including for mental health issues. The clinic is in a divide building next door to a Walmart store to give a sense of privacy for patients.
The website indicates that inception appointments are available on Sept. 13, and the company will offer primary care, dental, counseling, labs, X-rays and audiology, surrounded by other services. Sean Slovenski, who Walmart recruited from Humana, is leading the clinic efforts, the people casual said.
Walmart is already one of the largest pharmacy companies in the U.S., offering in-store sections for prescription drugs in almost all of its 4,700 places across the U.S. The company said health and wellness, which includes pharmacy, clinical and optical services, accounted for around 9%, or $36 billion, of its roughly $332 billion in U.S. sales last fiscal year.
The company hasn’t in days gone by offered mental health services, but it did lease space in one of its Texas stores to a third-party behavioral health company in 2018 because of a paucity of professionals in the region. That experience has helped inform the company’s view of how it can have a bigger impact in the space, the people told.
A Walmart spokesperson confirmed the opening of the clinic.
“Walmart is committed to making healthcare more affordable and accessible for patrons in the communities we serve,” the representative said. “The new Walmart Health center in our Dallas, Georgia, store will provide low, see-through pricing for key health services for local customers. We look forward to sharing more details when the facility uncovers next month.”
Primary care is a newer market for Walmart and puts it in competition with a different set of companies, rank from large health systems to emerging businesses like One Medical, Circle Medical and Forward. Walmart’s clear opportunity is that roughly 140 million people visit its stores every week, and it has about 1.5 million U.S. workers spread across cities of all sizes, including in rural areas where there’s a shortage of health-care services.
A snapshot of the oblations at Care Clinic
vs. the new Walmart Health
“I would put this in the broad category of retailers looking for services that fink on yield them opportunity for growth,” said Tom Lee, the founder of One Medical and CEO of primary care start-up Galileo Health, in an interview. “In-store concepts be undergoing had mixed success and this is an attempt to try something more standalone.” Lee said he wasn’t aware of Walmart’s plans.
Walmart has once upon a time offered what it calls Care Clinics in Texas, South Carolina and Georgia, but these are incorporated into persisting retail stores rather than its own site. The cost of an appointment varies from $59 to $99, although the presence accepts many of the largest health insurance plans.
The new clinic will have on-site health providers, including preserves, to offer consultations, immunizations and lab tests, people familiar with the matter said. Added services include pick up tests, 60-minute counseling sessions and vision tests.
Amazon, Walmart’s rival, has also been reckoning a bigger push into health. CNBC previously reported the company has been opening primary care clinics at its power office in Seattle. It acquired online pharmacy PillPack for about $750 million in 2018 in a bid to go deeper into instruction medication and take on companies like CVS and Walgreens.
Walmart has a culture of piloting new ideas in smaller settings, including try out delivering groceries inside of customers’ homes and experimenting with artificial intelligence at a Neighborhood Market store in Levittown, New York. If it can assay the model works, the company typically looks to scale the offerings across its locations.
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