Walmart to open retail clinics in Florida

Walmart is stepping deeper into the retail clinic space with plans to expand their Walmart Health facilities in Florida in 2021.

According to a news release, details are not ironed out just yet, but it will initially be focusing on the Jacksonville area and will build on the features and services offered at their existing clinics in Georgia and Arkansas as well as their planned locations in Illinois. These include:

• Low transparent prices for healthcare service regardless of whether the patient is insured
• Qualified medical professionals including physicians, nurse practitioners, dentists, counselors, and optometrists
• State-of-the-art facilities offering full-service primary and urgent care, labs, x-ray and diagnostics, counseling, dental, optical, and hearing services
• Specialized community health resources like online education and in-center workshops

The COVID-19 pandemic as well as the subsequent economic collapse that is resulting in the loss of health insurance for millions across the country has just reinforced the vulnerabilities of the U.S. healthcare system. Walmart doesn’t take their responsibility to their customers during this trying time, according to the release.

Walmart isn’t the only store getting into the business of retail healthcare, as previously Walgreens is planning to open between 500 and 700 facilities co-located with their stores. The clinics will be called Village Medical at Walgreens and will be part of a $1 billion investment the drug store chain is making in VillageMD. They will integrate Walgreens pharmacists into a group of 3,600 physicians to be recruited by VillageMD.

Web retailers are also getting into the act, as Amazon has announced their intention to open clinics near their fulfillment centers and operations facilities. The first such clinic is available to the 20,000 employees in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in Texas.

Amazon’s plan is to, through the initial phase of the program, establish 20 such clinics in five cities across the U.S. with the goal of improving access and care for the more than 115,000 Amazon employees in Phoenix, Ariz.; Louisville, Ky.; Detroit, Mich.; the San Bernadino-Moreno Valley area, Calif.; and Dallas-Fort Worth. If the pilot program succeeds Amazon will seek to expand to other cities.