Health Insurers and Retail Pharmacies Expand Primary Care Services

I have blogged extensively about how health insurers and retail pharmacies have been entering the primary care market.Market Watch recently published an article informing the investor community about this trend (see:Health insurers and retail pharmacies are making a play for primary care). Below is an excerpt from this article:CVS Health..., Humana..., Walgreens..., Walmart...and UnitedHealth Group now operate hundreds of clinics that directly market themselves as primary care providers or provide a majority of primary care services. And they all plan to open more clinics in 2020....As the U.S. health care system has shifted from a fee-for-service model to one that emphasizes value over the last 10 years, interest in primary care has revived as it is viewed as a less expensive way to lower downstream health care spending....Optum, [a unit of UnitedHealth], currently operates 47 primary care clinics, a number that has doubled over the past two years....A Walgreens spokeswoman said the pharmacy giant operates nine primary care clinics, in partnership with several organizations, including primary care-providerVillage Medical [Village MD].Humana had 230 primary care centers that it owns or that are part of joint ventures....CVS Health, which has opened 50 of its HealthHubs in Atlanta, Houston, Philadelphia and Tampa, Fla.....But not all insurers are trying to own primary-care practices.Anthem...reiterated to investors this year that it isn ’t interested in buying or opera...
Source: Lab Soft News - Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Tags: Healthcare Business Healthcare Insurance Public Health Source Type: blogs