It’s Not Your Imagination: There Really Is More News Than Ever on Retail Efforts to Break into Healthcare

JUCM News readers may have noticed more items than ever informing you of moves by various retail drugstores and big-box stores to draw business away from urgent care and primary care practices. Most recently, we told you about Walgreens’ and Walmart’s’ latest attempts. If you haven’t been keeping score, an article just published by Becker’s Hospital Review notes that a grand total of 4,233 outlets have opened up—still just a fraction of the number of urgent care centers in the U.S. Optum has lead the way with 2,200 specialty care offices across 16 states, followed by CVS (1,100 Minute Clinic locations in 36 states and the District of Columbia, with 130 primary clinics to be added thanks to the company’s purchase of Oak Street Health); Walgreens (680 VillageMD locations in 26 states); Amazon (221 One Medical primary care offices in 20 markets); and Walmart (32 Walmart Health centers in five states, with 45 more planned by the end of 2024).