Wal-Mart Exits Health Care, Again

Because the direct delivery of actual medical care is not a price- and volume-driven commodity, and never was

Author

J.D. Kleinke
April 30, 2024

And after multiple tries, not just the current version which was launched in 2019, as referenced here and in their corporate PR. (Wal-Mart tried the same strategy in the early 2000s and it failed for many of the same reasons.

This comes on the heels of UnitedHealth's announcement last week that it was pulling out of the tele-health business. Two coincidental data points -- or the early markers of a Big Health Care retrenchment to come? If so, it would be a long overdue reckoning with vertical corporate overreach into health care that began in the 1990s -- and left all of us vulnerable to system-wide crashes like the cyber attack on UnitedHealth's Change Healthcare unit earlier this year.

Walmart to shutter health centers, virtual care service in latest failed push into health care

Walmart said clinics are not a sustainable business model due to a challenging reimbursement environment for primary care and increasing operating costs.

www.cnbc.com/2024/04/30/walmart-to-shutter-health-centers-virtual-care-service.html