When CheckUps, who had partnered with Wal-Mart to offer walk-in health clinics in the store, recently closed the doors at the 23 clinics they operated in Wal-Mart, it left the question of how Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) would respond.
It didn't trouble them at all, as they're looking at a long-term strategy to build up the business. They simply stated that it was CheckUps lack of funding that caused them to pull out, not the failure of the business model, which will take some time to build out.
"CheckUps is 'closed for the time being,' said William Armstrong Jr., spokesman for the clinics. 'I wouldn't write them off at this point.'
"Armstrong said it's too soon to say whether those locations will reopen. The problem, he said, had nothing to do with Wal-Mart, which leased space to CheckUps, but rather with being a startup company that couldn't bring in enough revenue quickly enough to cover its costs.
"CheckUps was seeing 20 to 30 patients daily, barely breaking even, he said.
"Morales said those closures have no influence on Wal-Mart's approach to opening its mini clinics."
Now the retail giant is turning to partnering with local hospitals and health systems to offer the health clinics in-store.
"Wal-Mart Stores will open its first in-store medical clinics under its own brand name after leasing space in dozens of stores to outside companies that operate the quick-service health stops.
"The world's largest retailer said Thursday it will open 'The Clinic at Wal-Mart' as a joint venture with local hospital systems in Atlanta, Dallas and Little Rock, starting in April."
"A routine visit costs $40 to $65, excluding insurance. That is less than a similar visit to a primary-care physician, which could run between $80 and $110, excluding insurance, while an emergency room visit could be at least $250, said Alicia Ledlie, senior director of Wal-Mart's health business development.
"Ledlie said its in-store clinic operators found that more than half of the customers who used the clinics said they had no health insurance, and nearly 15% said they would have gone to an emergency room if the clinic was not there."
With Wal-Mart's expertise at draining excess costs out of the market, this will definitely be a boon to those seeking affordable health care.
According to Lee Scott, Wal-Mart CEO, "Wal-Mart customers have saved about $290 million on selected generic prescription drugs since September 2006, when the company began selling prescriptions for $4 each in Tampa, Fla. Available nationwide since November, the $4 prescriptions now account for more than 35 percent of all prescriptions filled at Wal-Mart and nearly 30 percent of the $4 prescriptions are filled without insurance.
“The response has been nothing short of spectacular,” Scott says of the $4 program. “Within days of announcing our $4 program, countless other discounters, drug stores and supermarkets dropped their prices on generic prescriptions. That has surely saved our health care system millions of more dollars. So let there be no doubt that the private sector can lead,” added Scott.
"Surveys indicate that more than half of those who visited a clinic in a Wal-Mart said they were uninsured, and almost 15% of customers said they would have gone to a hospital emergency room for their care if they could not have gone to one of the clinics."
Services Offered
"Providers running the clinics, which will be staffed by certified nurse practitioners or physicians, will determine what services to offer, and will include preventive and routine care for conditions such as allergies and sinus infections, as well as services such as cholesterol screenings."
Other basic services offered would include school physicals, ear infections, pink eye, strep throat and sinus infections, among others.
"Now Wal-Mart has signed a letter of intent to work with local hospital systems and RediClinic to open cobranded walk-in clinics in 200 Wal-Mart Supercenters.
"Wal-Mart has also signed a letter of intent to partner directly with St. Vincent Health System, a part of the Catholic Healthcare Initiatives system, to open four cobranded clinics in Little Rock.
"Co-branding means the clinics will jointly bear the names of Wal-Mart and its partners and have an identical look and record keeping system, Wal-Mart spokeswoman Deisha Galberth said."
"Wal-Mart is requiring that the operators of its clinics--including RediClinic--use e-health record and practice management software from eClinicalWorks, a privately held vendor. 'Wal-Mart wants to be consistent with all its clinics,' says a RediClinic spokeswoman. EClinicalWorks, which posted revenue of $60 million last year, is tiny compared with health-record software vendors such as General Electric and Epic Systems. But it's playing a key role in a few high-profile regional projects, including the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative, where hundreds of doctors in Massachusetts are using eClinicalWorks software in their practices.
"To comply with American Medical Association guidelines, e-health record systems are used in almost all of the in-store health clinics in the United States. There were more than 700 of them at the end of last year and could be more than 1,500 by the end of this year, according to estimates by Mary Kate Scott, principal of health clinic consulting firm Scott & Co."
Other Retailers Joining the Party
The move by Wal-Mart has caused a large number of other retailers to join the health and business model they launched. Companies like Fry's Food Stores, CVS/Caremark (NYSE:CVS), Walgreen (NYSE:WAG), Target Corp. (NYSE:TGT), Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. (Nasdaq: WINN) and Publix Super Markets, Inc., among numerous others.
Market Solutions are the Answer
This is a great lesson in how business has the answers to problems like these. When you have great companies like Wal-Mart and others taking the lead, and providing leadership in this vital area, it shows the power businesses and the market can offer when they put their minds to it.
We are probably seeing the beginning of the answers to our health care problems, with the low-cost solutions provided by a growing number of retailers.
Add the low-price generic drugs offered by Wal-Mart and others, and you see the tremendous potential these types of programs and services have. It's far better than some type of forced national health plan that will do more harm than good. The market and business is where the real solutions will come. We're starting to see it happen in front of our eyes. There'll be more exciting ideas and answers in the near future. I for one am looking forward to it.
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