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Posted on 08/12/2014 10:32:39 PM PDT by Between the Lines
Sumter - Gov. Nikki Haley and two high profile health care advisors boarded a private plane to Bentonville, Ark., more than a year ago for a closed-door meeting with Wal-Mart executives. They hoped to convince the largest retailer in the country to launch a new primary care strategy in South Carolina.
"We told Wal-Mart, 'We think this is perfect,'" said Tony Keck, director of the state Medicaid agency, who attended the meeting.
It seems Wal-Mart agreed. On Thursday, the company opened its fourth and fifth "Care Clinics" in Sumter and Florence.
The first three clinics, staffed by licensed nurse practitioners, are already up and running in Texas.
Although most stores have long included low-cost pharmacies, these five sites represent the company's first foray into primary care.
Wal-Mart has not announced where it will expand the model beyond the two pilot states.
"For our associates and dependents on the health plan, you can come and see a provider in the Wal-Mart Care Clinic for $4. Four dollars! That is setting a new retail price in the health care industry," said Jennifer LaPerre, senior director for the company's health and wellness program, during the Sumter clinic's grand opening Thursday.
Wal-Mart has long drawn criticism for the health care benefits it offers its low-income employees. A May report published by the Americans for Tax Fairness estimates Wal-Mart's 1.4 million workers rely on $6.2 billion worth of public assistance programs every year, including food stamps and Medicaid. The new Care Clinics are open for both employees and customers, but employees will pay a fraction of the fees charged to the general public.
A spokeswoman for the company said she anticipates 1,200 Wal-Mart staff in Sumter and Florence will benefit from the new clinics.
Customers pay $40 for appointments and additional fees for lab work. The Care Clinics only accept fee-for-service Medicaid and Medicare plans. Privately insured patients pay the same amount for services as uninsured patients.
Advocates for the new model call it cutting edge. They say the Care Clinics increase access to the health system by putting providers right in the front of Wal-Mart stores where thousands of people pass by every day. Many of those shoppers live on middle-to-low incomes and need help managing chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension. Meanwhile, critics worry that the seen-as-you-need-to-be-seen clinics may undermine traditional doctor-patient relationships.
"That's not a medical home," said Shelli Quenga, programs director for the nonprofit Palmetto Project. "So how do we say, 'It's OK to go to this place for intermediate care, but you need somebody who knows you?'"
Both South Carolina sites were strategically chosen because many of the state's sickest, low-income residents live there.
"I think this is good news and bad news," said Sumter Mayor Joe McElveen. "The bad news is, I guess, the two are being opened in Florence and Sumter because we have lots of people who need service. The good news is that it is affordable."
Keck said South Carolina's significant physician shortage demands new solutions and leaves no room for detractors to complain.
"We have to have every access point possible in the system," he said. "We should be happy about it."
Bernadette Simmons, an assistant manager at the Sumter Wal-Mart, does not have health insurance through the company - she's been employed there since May - but she only paid $36 for a visit and lab work during her first appointment at the new clinic on Thursday.
"You cannot beat that," the 45-year-old said. She had some pain in her feet and her knee that she wanted checked out, and the nurse determined that her blood pressure was "borderline." An outpatient practice in town would have charged her $86 for the visit alone, she said.
"This (clinic) is needed in the community because everyone doesn't have insurance and really can't afford to go to the doctor because of the expense," Simmons said. "It's been the talk. It's been buzzing. We're very excited."
Haley was not available to answer questions about the pilot program, but her spokesman Doug Mayer said in a statement that the clinics "won't just make us healthier but will help to drive down costs, and that's a win for every person in our state."
The Arkansas trip was not paid for by the state, Mayer said. Department of Health and Environmental Control Director Catherine Templeton also attended the meeting with Wal-Mart executives, he said.
“Welcome to Costco. I love you.”
This is an interesting concept and likely game changer, but reminds me of Idiocracy. Can we get married at Walmart? Nobody answer that. I feel like it’s been done already but don’t want to know the answer.
I’m drawing the line at getting a law degree from there.
Kroger’s has the “Little Clinic” with a NP, but it only takes care of small stuff, like infected insect bites, or a school physical, stuffy noses, small cuts, flu shots.
I’ve used them, a couple of times for infected insect bites, the visit and the cost of the script goes on your gas points. They even take Medicare and Tricare Life. Beats the Minor Med, that I by pass, If I’m at the point I need care beyond what the Little Clinic can handle it is ER time with a usual 3-4 day hospital stay.
I’ve tried using the Minor Meds, but usually they send me on to the ER. So now I just by pass them.
As long as they use doctors and a NP it would not be a bad deal.
Youngest son hurt his foot, went to a Minor Med, they did xrays. Then they sent him to a ortho, who could NOT open the CD to access the xrays, and had to do more. Double stress fractures. We used Campbell Clinic (Ortho) after hours clinic for that as it would take 2+ weeks for him to get a regular appointment. He has a return visit in 2 weeks, and sees a Ortho of the foot in a month. He has Athena and the co-pay was $75 per place because of the xrays.
I can see more specialist going this route. And yes PCP can go this route, for after hours and a Sat if they have more than 1 Internist on staff or a few NP’s. Rotate out the after hrs and Sat. So you don’t have burn out. There is always a need for after hours and weekend doctor visits because of life’s unexpected stuff, that your regular PCP could take care of that does not need a ER visit.
It will fill a niche as our hospitals are over run with ILLEGALS and welfare queens.
I have to solve the issue of how I’m going to pay for very costly hearing aids. I’ve priced them. Factored in the travel, and up keep, and the cheaper ones from places like Costco don’t fit the bill. We live in the boonies, it’s a 2 hr round trip drive. Medicare nor Tricare Life cover these necessities beyond the audio testing.
Question for the Walmart hating FReepers....... are all the nurse practitioners Chinese?
Ping!
For younger healthier people it a great idea. Even seniors who don’t have serious medical conditions. I fall into the later category. So I have a regular dedicated Gastro, ENDO, and Internist, and and a established ENT and a skin doc when needed.
For those of us with multiple health issues, having a mainline PCP is necessary. But with a dual system I can choose what is needed. My PCP is not open on weekends or after hrs, and it takes a week or more to get an appointment. So there is a need for the walk in’s. I’ve always gotten good care from them. With a follow up with the PCP if required.
They don’t like the walk in’s because they have proved it can be done cheaper and with the same quality of care.
Haley is brilliant and is just another great governor in our bench. This is the way to fix healthcare. Sadly, I’m in Illannoy and our Gov. Quinn can only steal, not create.
Yep, better get used to nurse practitioners ... Wal*Mart has proven ‘discounts’ work...and they sacrificed real quality for ‘less’..but we got used to it and now don’t even notice all the Chinese-made goods that once were Sam Walton’s made-in-America goods. It will be the same for this. We will adjust...down...as we are doing for the whole country.
Small for-profit clinics are opening up in the area I live in. For $60 you see a doc - no appointment necessary. They’ll patch you up right at the clinic or write a prescription for whatever ails you. I think it’s great. It sure beats paying bundles of cash for emergency room treatment.
These clinics will bring some financial sanity back to the cost of medical care.
We've got a lot of them here ("Wal-Mart haters) and an amazing number of cop haters too.
We can turn WalMart into a truck stop McD’s. Complete with Indian artwork, tattoo parlor, vasectomy reversal, gift shop.
And of course a wedding chapel.
Elites might play golf with their doctors and chat about family, but for most people the 'traditional doctor-patient relationship' is a 60 second 'file read' before the doctor walks in..
Walmart doctors can master that trick without much thought...
What doctor?
If you aren’t medicaid and actually have to pay out of pocket, it pays to shop. In Arkansas, some local hospitals have opened clinics in WalMarts. The reduced cost of getting quick low cost, convenient, treatment for everyday minor issues is a fantastic change. Given that our medical records are digital, portable, and certainly not private, your practitioner has your primary care records in an instant. You get the same or better care for $35 bucks rather than $135.
Hooray for South Carolina!
I've been advocating this for years. There is no need to pay a hospital emergency room hundreds of dollars to suture a cut (or simply clean, disinfect and put a butterfly band-aid on it.) Or tell a worried mom that temp of 101.5 is not dangerous, baring other symptoms.
For a good part of my life my medical treatments were from Navy hospital corpsmen or missionary nurses in Africa, not MDs or hospital emergency rooms. In rural areas our grandparents were treated by family members when possible and basic "triage" was performed by the family or neighbors.
A good RN or EMT located at a convenient, 24 hour facility where the overhead is paid by the retail side of that facility makes a good deal of sense. For that matter, just like most pharmacies have blood pressure testers, it would be relatively easy to create a "Photo-Me" style booth to take your vital signs and give a recommendation.
Of course, the lawyers and the doctor's monopoly full employment union (the AMA) will shoot down that idea.
Reminds me of something. My husband's sister, a nurse, was married to a primary care doctor. He worked at a little clinic here in rural central Virginia.
His ancestry was Polish/Russian, and his name was classic Polish, ending in "ski." One day a black guy walked into the clinic and asked to be treated by him---"That Chinese doctor."
This is the future of healthcare in this country.
Doctorin’ is hard, and really not worth it with all the new restrictions, regulations, and red tape.
So, there will be fewer doctors and more “practitioners” in “care clinics” around the country.
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Nikki Haley Ping
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We’re getting our third Wal*Mart store here in Aiken County, South Carolina. It’s not open yet. I wonder if it will include one of these Care Clinics?
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