It was only a year ago that retail health clinics in the United States — the kinds run by CVS Health, Walmart, and Walgreens — were all the rage. Additional investments in and expansion of clinics nationally, supported by assumptions about what consumers would want in terms of primary care in the near future that fit what retail clinics purported to offer, filtered into an enthusiasm for the future of this model of care delivery. At its zenith in early 2024, there were 1,800 of these clinics nationally.
Since then, the situation has changed dramatically. Recent announcements by CVS Health, Walmart, and Walgreens that they were collectively shuttering a couple hundred retail health clinics nationwide, with Walmart getting out of the business entirely, has raised questions about the fiscal viability and mass appeal of this brand of primary care delivery.
Here’s what has gone wrong with retail health care, and what retailers wishing to regroup and recommit to the primary care space must do.
Continue Reading at the Harvard Business Review
