Walmart declared on April 30 that its virtual healthcare service would be discontinued, and all 51 Walmart Health facilities in five states would dissolve. (Photo : ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)
Walmart discontinued its virtual healthcare service and announced the closure of all 51 Walmart Health facilities across five states due to an unsustainable business model.
The move reflects broader economic challenges in the healthcare industry, including low government payments for primary care, a shortage of healthcare professionals, and rising labor and supply costs.
Closure of these facilities will particularly affect individuals in rural or underserved regions, where access to healthcare may become more challenging, despite Walmart's initial aim to provide convenient basic care services, including dentistry, vision, and mental health, to a significant portion of the American population.
Walmart declared on April 30 that its virtual healthcare service would be discontinued, and all 51 Walmart Health facilities in five states would dissolve. The company cited the reason that the model was "not a sustainable business one."
The massive retailer's announcement last month that it intended to grow both its brick-and-mortar health centers, which employed licensed nurse practitioners and primary care physicians and were open the same hours and days as its stores, and its virtual 24/7 health care, which includes video, chat, and phone calls, was abrupt.
According to analysts, the change also reflects broader economic issues facing the healthcare industry, which include low government payments for primary care, a scarcity of physicians and nurses, and skyrocketing labor and supply prices.
What Happens Now?
According to Hal Andrews, CEO of healthcare consulting firm Trilliant Health, individuals in rural or underserved regions may have a harder time accessing health care in the near future and will have to drive farther for it when they do.
Given that 90% of Americans resided within 10 miles of a Walmart store, the company said when it entered the primary care market in 2019 that it could offer many Americans convenient access to basic care, including dentistry, vision, and mental health services.
Still, Walmart discovered that even for a retail behemoth used to wringing a profit from low-margin industries like food, inexpensive care remained out of reach for providers.
According to Brian Marks, a senior economics and business analytics instructor at the University of New Haven, those economics exposed the difficulties of managing a healthcare organization. "It raises issues and indicates that the primary health care delivery system needs to be reexamined."
Walmart stated that the only businesses that would remain open are its pharmacy and vision clinics, which were not a part of Walmart Health.
Walmart operated the majority of its stores in low-income, rural, and underserved regions in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, and Texas. According to Andrews of Trilliant, the closures will most negatively impact these locations.
According to Marcus Osborne, the former vice president of health and wellness transformation at Walmart, those who visited the clinics often hadn't seen a dentist in five years or a primary care physician in two to three years, CNN reported in 2020. For the first time, a few patients saw a mental health counselor.
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