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 ...
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
What messed up 3rd world countries are these Walmart docs from?
your sister plus she was born here
Sounds great to me. I just dropped $99.00 + $14.00 for antibiotics at the CVS Minute Clinic to get my ears checked.
Less than $100 for all that? Sounds good.
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.
“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.
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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.
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.
Huh?
You do know that the vast majority of Nurse Practitioners were "genuine RNs" before they went on to earn their NP credentials, right?
Walmart doing what the bloated US government is too dysfunctional to do.
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.
All NP's have to be RN's.
That doesn’t make any sense since only a subset of RNs go on to be ARNPs.
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.
Now I can get a check-up while I’m pickin’ up my .22 ammo ! This is waaaay cool ! ! /s
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.
I have no problem with Walmart clinics. Its affordable for folks who cannot afford health insurance.
“. 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.”
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Maybe I’m dense,but that makes no sense.
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