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 retailers 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 companys 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 ...
Really, I think Walmart clinics are set up to generate Rx scripts for Walmart pharmacies. That probably explains 90% of it.
Got a good one here in Panama City, FL at Gulf Coast Hosp.
I would be like "door-nail" dead had it not been for them. They didn't quit when they found one cause of my condition and in their multi-cause diagnosing uncovered several problems that were masking one another to varying degrees.
They use a number of nurse practitioners that are under the supervision of the A.P. (attending physician). To let them handle details allows him to diagnose more incoming patients in a timely manner.
I just hope when they ask the question, "Do you keep guns in the house?" as per government mandate, they will follow up with, "Were well stocked in sporting goods, between hardware and automotive."
My brother bought his contacts and glasses from Sam's. The glasses were fine, but the prescription for the contacts was somehow messed up. He had to go back to Sam's twice before the problem was straightened out.
“Is that an opthamalogist or an optometrist? I didn’t think Walmart and Sam’s had opthamalogists.”
You were wrong. The lady is an opthamologist, and yes, I know the difference. She works at a Sam’s in Bradenton, Florida.
Late to this thread, don't know how I missed it. Here in SE NM there are not enough good doctors but plenty of those ones from India. They might be good knowledgeable doctors I don't know, because their communications skills (at least with Americans) are lousy.
For the past few years I have been trying to keep a common middle age type health issue in check and the two Indian doctors I was seeing didn't do much but order very expensive tests then babble unintelligibly about the results (plus, the so-called cardiologist pointing out an odd shaped fingernail and telling me I have lung cancer), provide exactly zero treatment, and then send me a big fat bill for it (thousands, above & beyond the insurance coverage).
This year I swore them off and have been going to a NP, she is a very pleasant southern gal who seems to know what she is doing, and she takes the time to explain things and I learned more about what I am dealing with in one visit than I learned in two years with Amar and Mrinal. One simple prescription and I feel 100% better overnight, and I am no longer fearful that I'm going to throw a rod any day now.
So, I'm not going to knock NPs in general, I think they have the skills to deal with 99% of what people go to "doctors" for really, and for the money you get a lot more time with them to actually learn what's going on inside and how to help yourself.
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