Sergio Wagner’s Post

Breaking: Healthcare remains largely a regional business. Another major retailer announced today it is pulling out of direct patient care. Walmart's healthcare reversal highlights a common misconception: the provision of complex services like primary and behavioral health care isn't another scalable widget. The thinking that patient care, especially primary care, can be disrupted with the same tactics used for groceries and electronics continues to reckon with "facts on the ground." Scalable businesses thrive on standardization, automation, and vast distribution networks (think Amazon, Netflix, Uber). By contrast, the complexities of patient relationships, reimbursement, and the human element of medicine including nurse, APP, and physician recruitment and retention don't translate well to the boardrooms of Fortune 100 companies. My two cents: while there is plenty of room for standardization in medicine, patient care demands personalization, nuance, and the right mix of local customization and standardization.

Interesting to watch how healthcare is changing and coming directly to people in places that are convenient for them. What’s also striking is the move away from healthinsurance. I know the issue is complicated and there’s many reasons for high healthcare costs, but I firmly believe that for-profit insurance companies are the main reason our healthcare has become so expensive. The direct primary care model that eschews insurance has been around for years, but this pushes it even further into the main stream. It definitely will be interesting to see how it all unfolds.

Why the Walmart Model Doesn’t Work in Healthcare 'Just a few years ago, it looked as though national retail chains such as Walmart, Walgreens, CVS & Amazon were going to be your doctor, too. Now they are medical-school dropouts. In recent years, everyone from large retailers to private-equity firms to insurers have been jockeying to acquire doctor chains. The market top came sometime between mid-2022 and early 2023. Within a span of eight months, Amazon.com said it was spending $3.9 billion to buy the primary-care chain One Medical; a Walgreens unit struck a $9 billion deal to expand its medical practices; and CVS Health agreed to spend a whopping $10.6 billion on the primary-care chain Oak Street Health. At the time, it seemed inevitable that the doctor’s office was increasingly going to be a big-box service—something you do on your way to the snack aisle. But it has NOT worked out. “To put it bluntly, primary care is hard,” said Stephanie Davis, an analyst at Barclays. The problem for Walmart, said Craig Garthwaite, a strategy professor at Northwestern University, is that in medicine you can’t really build economies of scale by driving the costs of such things as purchasing and advertising down to charge lower prices and gain market share. In a doctor’s office, your big-ticket costs are the people': A family physician might make something like $200,000, while a nurse practitioner is paid around $100,000. “If it were easy to provide higher-quality care and take on costs, we wouldn’t have the problems with healthcare we have in this country,” said Mike Pykosz, who co-founded Oak Street and is now president of healthcare delivery at CVS. https://lnkd.in/e-REEfNt

Healthcare is evolving. Traditional providers cannot sit idly by. Deep pocket disrupters like Walmart Health, Amazon's One Medical, & CVS Health are expanding their reach. And they've only just begun. What will your organization do to adapt? #beckershealthcare #healthcareinnovation #healthcarebusiness #healthcareaccess

Across the healthcare landscape, marketing budgets have either remained stagnant or declined. 📉 Health systems must strive to forge lasting patient relationships that will consistently drive ROI, which means focusing on patient retention alongside acquisition. Discover how you can achieve lasting patient connections with Healthgrades: https://bit.ly/3xhIEry #PatientRetention #Healthcare #HealthSystems #DigitalMarketing

Reimagining Healthcare in the Wake of Walmart's Decision Recent developments, such as Walmart's announcement of closing its health centers and virtual care services, have sparked crucial conversations in the healthcare sector. Ashok Subramanian, Founder & CEO of Centivo, offers a thought-provoking perspective on the underlying issues highlighted by this decision. According to Ashok, the closure of Walmart Health services underscores a fundamental flaw in our current healthcare system. He emphasizes that merely layering new solutions atop an existing broken model is futile. Instead, there's a pressing need to overhaul the entire approach to healthcare delivery. In Ashok's view, the real problem lies in the financing of uncoordinated, fragmented healthcare services at inconsistent prices without regard for quality. He rightly points out that this model is unsustainable and fails to deliver coordinated care or improve access effectively. Walmart's decision serves as a wake-up call for the industry to rethink its strategies. It's time to move away from piecemeal solutions and embrace a holistic approach that prioritizes coordinated care, enhanced access, and financial sustainability. As we navigate these shifts, Centivo remains committed to driving meaningful change in the healthcare landscape. We're dedicated to delivering tangible value to employers, employees and providers through our innovative primary care-centered model. Let's seize this opportunity to reimagine healthcare for the betterment of all.

Walmart shuttering its healthcare business is interesting. They were aggressive, truly understand the footprint of the Medicare population, how & where it will expand, and had a strategy that aligned the population expansion, the footprint of their existing stores, and the growing demand for alternative points of care. The strategy was rock solid. The TAM and CAGR were significant. It still didn't work. The question that we need to be looking at hard at as an industry, IMHO, is why? Profitability & Sustainability matter, but the bigger question is what is the role of low-acuity care management in our health system? Is it to actually provide preventative care? Is it meant to triage chronic diseases? Is it meant to gather potential procedures? Is it meant to drive pharmacy utilization? It might be trying to be all things, all the time, and not doing many, if any of them, well. I believe healthcare providers have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make actual progress in changing this dynamic, re-establish the patient-physician relationship, and rebuild the trust in the system that has been broken. Healthcare leaders need to take a hard look in the mirror and understand the "why" of their organizations and how to best deliver on that promise. Otherwise, many of them will be facing the same decision point as Walmart's leadership without the retail arm to fall back on. https://lnkd.in/gGU2RwAR

Colin Hung at Sway Health gave me the opportunity to talk about my NESHCo presentation and MDRG, Inc.'s HX Index report. Colin nailed it on the summary, but take a listen and let me know what you think. Key Takeaways 💡 Half of consumers polled have tried non-traditional healthcare providers (retail health and telehealth providers) 💡 Retail health providers win on convenience, but fall behind traditional providers on quality and relationship. The latter two are the factors that generate loyalty. 💡 Consumers want personalized healthcare experiences and they want agency (aka an active partner in their care) Latest Consumer Healthcare Trends The HX Index Report from MDRG investigates what consumers prioritize when seeking care and how those priorities fit into the current healthcare landscape. #healthcare #Healthcareexperience #patientexperience #HX #PX

Walmart has decided to close its Walmart Health clinics and virtual care operations due to a challenging reimbursement environment and escalating costs. This move reflects broader struggles in the retail healthcare sector, as other companies like Walgreens and Optum also scale back their healthcare initiatives. Walmart's decision underscores the difficulty of achieving profitability in primary care and telehealth, markets that often require high patient volume and integrated care models to be sustainable. The company will instead focus on expanding its pharmacy and vision care services, which have shown more stability and growth potential This retreat from direct healthcare services highlights the complex and costly nature of providing primary care, especially for retailers who lack the integrated care systems that traditional health providers use to maintain profitability. https://lnkd.in/eC67nEn5

In today's ever-changing healthcare landscape, innovation is key to staying ahead of the curve. Check out this article by HME News, which discusses the importance of innovation in the HME industry and the recent partnership between Best Buy and Health Partners. At ProxyDME, we understand the importance of innovation in healthcare and the role it plays in enhancing patient care. That's why we are committed to leveraging the latest technology and trends to deliver top-notch DMEPOS consulting and management services. Our team of experts is always up to date with the latest industry trends and strives to provide innovative solutions to meet the unique needs of each of our clients. We believe that through innovation, we can help healthcare providers stay ahead of the curve and provide better care to their patients. We are proud to be a leader in DMEPOS consulting and management and are committed to continuing to push the boundaries of innovation. Contact us today to learn more about our services and how we can help you optimize your DMEPOS management. #innovation #technology #healthcare #hme #dme https://lnkd.in/es9V3EUy