Walmart opens 5 new clinics in Florida with same approach of low costs and convenience as its Supercenters

The news: Walmart opened five new Walmart Health centers across Florida. This news comes six months after it announced plans to expand its clinic presence in Florida.

Unpacking Walmart’s health centers: Walmart offers a one-stop shop approach to healthcare, much like its retail experience.

• Walmart Health centers offer everything from primary care, lab testing, and imaging, to dental care, psychiatric care, and counseling.
• Walmart Health offers low, one-time charges for primary care services. This differs from entrants like One Medical, which require annual subscriptions. One Medical’s subscription is $200, for context.

How we got here: Walmart launched its first health clinic in 2019, and it’s kicked expansion into high gear since.

• In June 2020, it acquired prescription management platform CareZone to expand medication management and delivery services to its customers.
• In September 2020, it struck a deal with Medicare-focused primary care company Oak Street Health to integrate its primary care services into three major supercenters.
• In May 2021, Walmart acquired telehealth provider MeMd. This gave Walmart the competitive edge of having both in-person and virtual care services.
• In September 2021, Walmart tapped Epic to connect its healthcare services (including virtual care) with Epic’s EHR platform.
• And in October, it partnered with health benefits company Transcarent to make its retail clinics, telehealth services, and prescription benefits available to Transcarent members.

What’s next? Walmart is encroaching on the primary care space with its hybrid in-person and virtual model of care. And it’s big enough to capitalize on the D2C healthcare and employer benefits markets.

• In H1’ 2021, over one-quarter (27%) of funded digital health companies operated on a D2C model. That’s up from 22% last year, per Rock Health.
• Many employers are turning to virtual care to clamp down on rising healthcare costs without sacrificing quality of care.
• Walmart is entering the game from a very powerful seat. It already has higher customer loyalty than other leading retailers and a large physical footprint of around 3,600 supercenters, per Insider.
• Plus, its affordable prices and one-stop-shop model could edge out competitors like VillageMD and CVS MinuteClinic.