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Wal-Mart’s new everyday low price: A $40 doctor visit
Market Watch ^ | Oct. 17,2014 | Andria Cheng

Posted on 10/19/2014 5:01:22 PM PDT by Hojczyk

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. pushed down prices for some generic prescription drugs to just $4 eight years ago, setting a new industry standard. Now it is trying to do the same for seeing a doctor.

On Friday, a Walmart Care Clinic opened in Dalton, Ga., six months after Walmart U.S., the retailer’s WMT, +0.38% biggest unit, entered the business of providing primary health care. It now operates a dozen clinics in rural Texas, South Carolina and Georgia and has increased its target for openings this year to 17.

An office visit costs $40, which Walmart U.S. says is about half the industry standard, and just $4 for Walmart U.S. employees and family members with the company’s insurance. A pregnancy test costs just $3, and a cholesterol test $8. A typical retail clinic offers acute care only. But a Walmart Care Clinic also treats chronic conditions such as diabetes. (Walmart U.S. also leases space in its stores to 94 clinics owned by others that set their own pricing.)

“It was very important to us that we establish a retail price in the health-care industry because price leadership matters to us,” said Jennifer LaPerre, a Walmart U.S. senior director responsible for health and wellness, in an interview.

(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; US: Georgia; US: Missouri
KEYWORDS: ferguson; georgia; missouri; walmart; walmartclinic
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To: fatnotlazy

no it won’t cuz the people who go to er for hangnails will still go there for free instead of paying $40 at walmart


41 posted on 10/19/2014 5:56:28 PM PDT by SendShaqtoIraq
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To: Hojczyk

What messed up 3rd world countries are these Walmart docs from?


42 posted on 10/19/2014 5:57:16 PM PDT by dennisw (The first principle is to find out who you are then you can achieve anything -- Buddhist monk)
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To: Focault's Pendulum

your sister plus she was born here


43 posted on 10/19/2014 5:58:40 PM PDT by dennisw (The first principle is to find out who you are then you can achieve anything -- Buddhist monk)
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To: Hojczyk

Sounds great to me. I just dropped $99.00 + $14.00 for antibiotics at the CVS Minute Clinic to get my ears checked.


44 posted on 10/19/2014 6:00:06 PM PDT by peggybac (My boss I respect, my father I revered. Chris Rock, Mr. Obama is NOT my boss or my father.)
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To: PubliusMM

Less than $100 for all that? Sounds good.


45 posted on 10/19/2014 6:00:25 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me.)
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To: Hojczyk

I’m sure that soon there will be another one of those legislative press conferences where President Messiah announces what new laws he has created, and that walmart care will be prohibited.


46 posted on 10/19/2014 6:00:59 PM PDT by JohnBrowdie (http://forum.stink-eye.net)
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To: Focault's Pendulum

“Not trying to appear rude but my sister is tops in her field. She’s caught more than several misdiagnoses. “


In 1968,when I was giving birth to my 5th child, a nurse caught an error by an idiot young doctor.

I still remember it,even after all of those years.

.


47 posted on 10/19/2014 6:01:34 PM PDT by Mears
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To: fso301

My wife is an NP.

One, great example: she works in a large pool of doctors; about 28 of them. There are 5-6 NPs.

They were all instructed to study up and get certified to administer some of the new State-required DOT physical exams. The cert test was comprehensive and Board reviewed.

After one year, not one doctor has passed the exam. All of the NPs passed on the first try.

NPs should not be confused with PAs, RNs, nor LPNs nor should anyone feel cheated by seeing one; especially in an acute care setting.

We are heading towards a pay as you go medical system and moving steadily away from an insurance-based system. One of the good side-effects of ObamaCare.


48 posted on 10/19/2014 6:01:56 PM PDT by Noamie
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To: Focault's Pendulum

My doctor’s office has an NP that I have as a primary and she is very good. Besides there are two doctors there if an extra opinion is needed.


49 posted on 10/19/2014 6:02:29 PM PDT by wally_bert (There are no winners in a game of losers. I'm Tommy Joyce, welcome to the Oriental Lounge.)
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To: Attention Surplus Disorder
I believe that reasonably skilled nurse pracs can do about 35% of what doctors can do. I think genuine RNs can do 2/3rd of what doctors can do.

Huh?

You do know that the vast majority of Nurse Practitioners were "genuine RNs" before they went on to earn their NP credentials, right?

50 posted on 10/19/2014 6:03:47 PM PDT by Gamecock (USA, Ret.)
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To: Hojczyk

Walmart doing what the bloated US government is too dysfunctional to do.


51 posted on 10/19/2014 6:06:37 PM PDT by Iron Munro (EARBOLA: The nausea you get from the sound of Barack Obama giving a speech.)
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To: Noamie
.. moving steadily away from an insurance-based system

Can't happen soon enough !
I'd be willing to bet/make a WAG that at least 50% of billable health care costs are for ridiculously petty stuff that most people wouldn't consider going out of pocket for.

52 posted on 10/19/2014 6:15:50 PM PDT by tomkat
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To: Gamecock
You do know that the vast majority of Nurse Practitioners were "genuine RNs" before they went on to earn their NP credentials, right?

All NP's have to be RN's.

53 posted on 10/19/2014 6:16:12 PM PDT by Focault's Pendulum (I live in NJ....' Nuff said!)
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To: Attention Surplus Disorder

That doesn’t make any sense since only a subset of RNs go on to be ARNPs.


54 posted on 10/19/2014 6:19:51 PM PDT by steve86 (Prophecies of Maelmhaedhoc OÂ’Morgair (Latin form: Malachy))
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To: Focault's Pendulum

I wasn’t as clear as I should have been. You are correct.

What I was trying to say with the “genuine RN” comment was they have years of experience at the bedside, in ERs, etc. Very few of them go to an NP program without years of experience.

New grads, in any profession, are not genuine in that they have book knowledge but not the acumen that comes with years of honing one’s skills.


55 posted on 10/19/2014 6:20:38 PM PDT by Gamecock (USA, Ret.)
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To: Hojczyk

Now I can get a check-up while I’m pickin’ up my .22 ammo ! This is waaaay cool ! ! /s


56 posted on 10/19/2014 6:21:18 PM PDT by snooter55 (People may doubt what you say, but they will always believe what you do)
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To: Gamecock
OK. Got it.
57 posted on 10/19/2014 6:23:19 PM PDT by Focault's Pendulum (I live in NJ....' Nuff said!)
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To: Focault's Pendulum

My bad. I had it fully developed in my head, but I have been sick lately and my flu addled brain didn’t translate it to the keyboard.


58 posted on 10/19/2014 6:24:42 PM PDT by Gamecock (USA, Ret.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I have no problem with Walmart clinics. Its affordable for folks who cannot afford health insurance.


59 posted on 10/19/2014 6:26:05 PM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose o f a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: Attention Surplus Disorder

“. I believe that reasonably skilled nurse pracs can do about 35% of what doctors can do. I think genuine RNs can do 2/3rd of what doctors can do.”

Maybe I’m dense,but that makes no sense.

.


60 posted on 10/19/2014 6:26:27 PM PDT by Mears
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